[2] Although their early efforts failed to attract public attention, the band eventually came into prominence with the single "Robinson" released in April 1995 which sold more than 1.6 million copies in Japan.

[3] It was followed by their 6th studio album Hachimitsu, which was released the same year and achieved mainstream success, immediately topping the Japanese Oricon charts and selling approximately 1.7 million copies.

They have been listed in the top 30 of the best-selling music acts in history of the Japanese record charts, having sold over 20.8 million copies albums and singles domestically as of December 2013.

Along with fellow drummer Atsushi Ono, they formed the band called the Cheetahs, which was named after the nickname of 1960s Japanese female pop icon Kiyoko Suizenji.

To focus on the stage performance as a frontman, Kusano recruited another guitarist Taku Nishiwaki, and then the band changed its name to the Spitz.

Attempting to form a band again, Tamura brought Tetsuya Miwa, who had been his longtime friend since junior high school, on as a bass player.

Miwa, who was a student of Bunka Fashion College, also took his old friend Tatsuo Sakiyama into company as a drummer, who had been in the same folk song club at his art school.

Kusano was deeply influenced by The Blue Hearts, one of the most successful and influential Japanese punk rock band at the time, both artistically and musically.

He had apparently tried to imitate Hiroto Komoto's idiosyncratic stage presence and vocalizations, on the band's earliest live performances or recordings.

Afterwards, Kusano stopped acting or writing like Komoto and Masatoshi Mashima, and adapted to acoustic guitar-driven sound that matched with his own wide-ranged soft voice.

Songs like "Ai no Uta" and "Hibari no Kokoro" which were officially released, are the earliest materials that Kusano wrote after changing his style of music.

In November 1988, Spitz dropped the self-published single entitled "Tori ni Natte"/"UFO no Mieru Oka" on phonosheet.

In March 1990, they released the EP entitled Hibari no Kokoro independently on a Mistral label distributed by Shinjuku Loft.

In summer 1990, Spitz built up a business partnership with Road & Sky, the management for a multi-million selling singer-songwriter Shogo Hamada, and signed to Polydor Japan shortly afterwards.

This symphonic rock-oriented EP was featuring orchestration by its co-producer Tomoki Hasegawa, who previously undertook the strings arrangement of "Majo Tabi ni Deru", the lead single from their second studio album.

Although they had not originally wanted a mainstream success, members of the band had begun to feel sorry for their management team about a string of commercial disappointment.

However, owing to lack of communication between the artist and a producer, frontman was not able to be satisfied with a result of the recording, particularly disliking Sasaji's excessively synthesized sound and brass arrangements.

As a result, minor hit single boosted the band's ticket sales and enabled them to perform live extensively in larger venues.

In April of the following year, they released the single "Robinson" (ロビンソン) which placed among the top 10 of the Oricon Charts for the first time and sales exceeded 1.6 million.

It was not until they appeared in Meet the World Beat '95 at the Expo in Osaka in July that the members realized they really became stars after hearing great cheers from the audience.

In January, the following year, "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" was used as the theme song of Fuji TV network's drama Hakusen Nagashi (白線流し).

In March 1999, they compiled some unreleased tracks and released a special album entitled Ka Chou Fu Getsu (花鳥風月) with producer　Ryomei Shirai (白井良明).

After recording "Haru Natsu Rocket" (春夏ロケット) and "Memories" (メモリーズ, Memorīzu), they mixed them down in Miami and mastered them in Los Angeles.

In July of the year, they released 9th album Hayabusa (ハヤブサ), which is distinguished by its harder rock styling and changed their conventional image.