Mr. Big formed when prolific bass player Billy Sheehan (who has been hailed the Eddie Van Halen of the bass) departed David Lee Roth's solo band in 1988 and began creating his own group. Sheehan enlisted former Racer X guitarist Paul Gilbert, drummer Pat Torpey and singer Eric Martin and by 1989 the fledgling band had already inked a recording deal with Atlantic and issued an eponymous debut album. Mr. Big caused quite a stir among musicians but failed to match up commercially and crossover into a mainstream rock audience in the States, despite scoring instant success in Japan. For their sophomore effort, 1991's Lean Into It, the quartet went psychedelic on "Green Tinted Sixties Mind" and scored hit singles for the pair of ballads "To Be With You" and "Just Take My Heart." The album peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200 chart while "Be With You" soared to the coveted number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Just Take My Heart" landed at number 16 on the same Billboard chart.

Mr. Big released two more successful albums, 1993's Bump Ahead and 1996's Hey Man, but was unable to secure success in their native U.S. and thus decided to concentrate on Japan, where their popularity was continuing to skyrocket. They toured Japan incessantly and released Japan-only albums like Raw Sushi I, Raw Like Sushi II, Japandemoniumi, Mr. Big Japan and other like-named efforts. In the ‘90s Gilbert left Mr. Big to pursue a solo career and was replaced by former Poison guitarist Richie Kotzen. The new lineup of Mr. Big stepped in the studio to release Get Over It and Actual Size before bidding their Japanese fans farewell with a tour. Luckily for fans of Mr. Big, they have continued to release albums, most recently with 2002's In Japan.