A tune with Japanese lyrics that few worldwide listeners may perceive, sporting an authentic title that translated as “I Look Up When I Walk,” recorded by the ninth baby of a Tokyo restaurant proprietor? It wasn’t what you’ll name the standard recipe for achievement, however “Sukiyaki” was no typical launch.
The artist in query was Kyu Sakamoto, a longtime favourite in his native Japan by the point his career-defining single topped the Billboard Sizzling 100 for 3 weeks in June, 1963. The big recognition of “Sukiyaki” made Sakamoto the primary performer to have a No.1 hit within the U.S. with a Japanese language tune. His earlier observe file of 15 singles and eight albums that had been hits at house was totally eclipsed by the Capitol Data single because it went on to promote many thousands and thousands of copies.
After early native notoriety within the Japanese band the Drifters after which with Paradise King, Sakamoto’s solo catalog was launched with the unique of what grew to become “Sukiyaki,” the Toshiba-EMI single “Ue o Muite Arukō.” It was launched in the summertime of 1961, when he was nonetheless solely 19.
The next yr, Pye Data chief Louis Benjamin was on enterprise in Japan when he heard the tune, bringing it house for the eye of one of many label’s prime U.Ok. acts, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen. Somewhat than launch it below a title that broadcasters had been more likely to mangle – and which, as talked about, translated to “I Look Up When I Walk” – Pye renamed it for a extra easily-pronounced Japanese phrase: that of the beef-and-vegetables dish sukiyaki. The unique lyric described a person who has misplaced his love, and walks wanting upwards, whistling, to cease his tears from falling.
Ball’s recording together with his Jazzmen grew to become their fourth U.Ok. Prime 10 hit, spending three weeks at No.10 in February 1963. “A very pretty little tune,” avowed Report Mirror, “played very much in the ‘Midnight In Moscow’ style, very wisely we think.” The reference was to Ball’s largest U.Ok. hit, from 1961.
That success impressed DJ Wealthy Osborne, on KORD in Pasco, Washington, to start out spinning Sakamoto’s authentic on his present, and the rapid response prompted Capitol to select up the only for nationwide U.S. distribution, below the British title. It took off like a rocket, getting into the Sizzling 100 in Might 1963; 5 weeks later, it was No.1, eradicating Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” from the summit.
Quickly, “Sukiyaki” was charting around the globe, from Peru to Norway and Hong Kong to Australia, and travelled to No.6 within the U.Ok. Georgia-born Clyde Beavers even had a short-lived U.S. nation chart look together with his rendition, recorded after a visit to Washington, the place linguists offered a translation of the Japanese lyrics. Within the August, Billboard reported that “more than 4,000 teen-agers [their hyphenation] stormed Los Angeles International Airport” when the fresh-faced Sakamoto arrived for a promotional go to which included two segments for The Steve Allen Present.
“Sukiyaki” has continued to show its sturdiness in a couple of hundred cowl variations, most efficiently by one other Capitol act, soul duo A Style Of Honey, who took it to the highest of the R&B chart, and to No.3 pop, within the U.S. in 1981. That interpretation featured new English lyrics by the group’s Janice-Marie Johnson. The tune returned to the R&B Prime 10 within the fingers of 4 P.M. (For Optimistic Music) in 1995. Sakamoto sadly died at simply 43, within the Japan Airways crash that claimed 520 lives in 1985.
Take heed to “Sukiyaki” on Apple Music and Spotify.
