...and now you know, the rest of the story. Hitting #1 on the Billboard charts on this day in 1963 was Kyu Sakamotos unique, Sukiyaki. The song has a remarkable story...its a Japanese hit that became wildly popular in America despite Japanese lyrics that hardly anyone in the U.S. could understand. Sakamoto was a star in Japan as both an actor and a singer, and the song was known in his country as Ue O Muite Aruko, and was a hit overseas in 1961. Sometime in 1962, a British music executive named Louis Benjamin heard the song when he was traveling in Japan. He liked it so much, he had his group Kenny Ball & his Jazzmen record an instrumental version. Plus, he renamed the song Sukiyaki after a Japanese food he enjoyed. It eventually made it to America when a disk jockey in Washington state heard the British instrumental version, and started playing the original by Sakamoto. Requests began to pour into the station to hear it over and over again. Capitol Records then obtained the American rights to the song and released it stateside. As it has turned out, this remains the only song by a Japanese artist, and the only song with lyrics entirely in Japanese, to hit #1 in the United States.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 08:47:22 +0000