The Blue Hearts


The Blue Hearts was a Japanese punk rock band active from 1985 to 1995. They have been compared to such bands as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones. In 2003, HMV ranked them at number 19 on their list of 100 most important Japanese pop acts. In September 2007, Rolling Stone Japan rated their self-titled debut album number 3 on its list of the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time".

Career

Its members were Hiroto Kōmoto, Masatoshi Mashima, Junnosuke Kawaguchi and Tetsuya Kajiwara. Mikio Shirai was not an official member of the band, but often toured with them as their keyboardist. Formed in 1985, the group made its major debut in May 1987, and released its first album, the self-titled The Blue Hearts, and followed that up with seven more albums. Though they started on an independent label, each album sold more copies than the previous one, with their last recording selling in the millions. In 1990, The Blue Hearts had a self-titled EP released in the United States, which they supported with a US tour.
In addition to having popular albums, they also had many popular singles. Two of the most well-known are "Train-Train" and "Linda Linda", which can be found on many karaoke machines. A cover version of "Linda Linda" was used in the 2004 dramas Socrates in Love and Gachi Baka, as well as the 2005 film Linda Linda Linda, the plot of which centers on a high school girls' band practicing The Blue Hearts' songs for the finale concert of their school's culture festival. The song also appears in the 2005 Nintendo DS video game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan,. Other songs, including "Train-Train", "Owaranai Uta" and "Hito ni Yasashiku", have been featured in the Konami arcade games Drummania and Guitar Freaks. The 2015 anime series The Rolling Girls features covers of several Blue Hearts songs sung by the cast, including covers of "Hito ni Yasashiku" and "Tsuki no Bakugekiki" in the opening and ending sequences.
They were seen as controversial in Japan, where antics such as using the taboo Japanese word for crazy, and spitting on television cameras got them banned from TV for a year.

Post-breakup

After The Blue Hearts broke up in 1995, Kōmoto, Mashima and Shirai formed a new group, The High-Lows. In addition to retaining the hardcore fans of The Blue Hearts, The High-Lows were also able to attract new fans and lasted another ten years. When The High-Lows broke up in 2005, Kōmoto and Mashima again formed a new band in 2006, this time calling themselves The Cro-Magnons. Kawaguchi became a record producer and occasionally plays support for several bands, in 2009 he became the deputy director of propaganda for the Happiness Realization Party. Kajiwara formed The 3Peace in 1997, then The Big Hip in 2005 with Shirai, and his solo project Thunderbeat in 2008.
After the breakup of The Blue Hearts, both Kōmoto and Mashima chose not to sing any of the band's songs, with few exceptions. Kōmoto has sung "Boku no Migite" while performing live with other artists, and Mashima has occasionally performed "Aozora".

Members

;Former members
  • Masami Mochizuki – bass
  • Ryūsuke Hanabusa – drums
  • Norio Yamakawa – bass

    Discography

Singles

  • "1985"
  • "Hito ni Yasashiku"
  • "Linda Linda"
  • "Kiss Shite Hoshii"
  • "Blue Hearts Theme"
  • "Chernobyl"
  • "Train-Train"
  • "Love Letter"
  • "Aozora"
  • "Jōnetsu no Bara"
  • "Kubitsuri-dai Kara"
  • "Ano Ko ni Touch"
  • "Too Much Pain"
  • "Yume"
  • "Tabibito"
  • "1000 no Violin"
  • "Party"
  • "Yūgure"

    Studio albums

  • The Blue Hearts
  • Young and Pretty
  • Train-Train
  • Bust Waste Hip
  • High Kicks
  • Stick Out
  • Dug Out
  • ''Pan''

    Live albums

  • Live All Sold Out
  • ''Yaon Live on '94 6.18/19''

    Compilation albums

  • Blast Off!
  • Meet the Blue Hearts
  • East West Side Story
  • Super Best
  • The Blue Hearts Box
  • Singles 1990-1993
  • All Time Singles ~Super Premium Best~
  • ''All Time Memorials ~Super Selected Songs~''

    Videos

  • The Blue Hearts VHS
  • The Blue Hearts Live! ~1987.7.4 Hibiya Yagai Ongakudō~ VHS
  • Tour '88 Pretty Pineapple Special VHS
  • Blue Hearts no Video - Video Clip 1987-1989 VHS
  • Meet the Blue Hearts U.S.A. Tour 1990 VHS
  • High Kick Tour Video Pamphlet VHS
  • Zen-Nippon East Waste Tour '91 VHS/DVD
  • Endless Dreams ~The Blue Hearts Meet the Mutoid~ VHS
  • Blue Hearts no Video 2 - Video Clip 1990-1993 VHS/DVD
  • The Blue Hearts no Dekoboko Chindōchū VHS/DVD
  • Blue Hearts ga Kikoenai - History of the Blue Hearts VHS/DVD
  • Blue Hearts no Video + Maboroshi no Video Fukkokuban DVD
  • The Blue Hearts Live! DVD

    Others

  • Just a Beat Show
  • The Blue Hearts King of Mix
  • The Blue Hearts Tribute
  • The Blue Hearts 2002 Tribute
  • The Blue Hearts Super Tribute
  • The Blue Hearts Tribute 2005 Edition
  • The Blue Hearts "25th Anniversary" Tribute
  • ''30th Anniversary The Blue Hearts Re-mix 'Re-spect''