Song Blog: "Sukiyaki"

Did you know there is one song from Japan that found success in North America? "Ue o muite aruko (I Look Up When I Walk)," or "Sukiyaki," spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1963. Its artist, Kyu Sakamoto (1941-1985), was a popular singer, actor and TV personality in Japan, and is regarded as one of his country's most influential artists.

Composed by Rokusuke Ei and Hachidai Nakamura, and recorded in 1961, it is a weepy ballad about a man who feels sad over the woman who left him.

How this song became an international hit makes for an interesting story. SongFacts says that a radio DJ in Washington State heard an instrumental version by British bandleader Kenny Ball. This prompted him to play Sakamoto's original recording. He got the record from a girl who bought the record in Japan after hearing it in one of Sakamoto's movies.

How it got renamed after a Japanese stew is another story. Louis Benjamin, the head of Pye Records in England, decided to call it "Sukiyaki" before having Kenny Ball record it as a jazz instrumental. When Sakamoto's original started catching on in the US, it prompted Newsweek to quip that renaming it is like selling "Moon River" to the Japanese as "Beef Stew."

The female group A Taste of Honey (of "Boogie Oogie Oogie" fame) covered "Sukiyaki" in English in 1981, and it reached #1 on the US Adult Contemporary and R&B charts. This version was covered in 1995 by the male R&B quartet 4 P.M. (For Positive Music), and they took it to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A Taste of Honey's lead singer Janice Marie Johnson penned the English lyrics after getting permission from the song's copyright holders with the understanding that she would not receive credit or royalties. (She would later write Spanish lyrics for Selena when she covered it for the Latin market in 1989.) Though "Sukiyaki" sold well in English, it bares little resemblance to the original apart from the melody.

Sakamoto had several hits in his homeland, but "Sukiyaki" was his only major success internationally. He had one minor follow-up in the US with "China Nights (Shina no Yoru)" later in 1963, but it failed to make the top 40.

Sakamoto's life came to a tragic end on August 12, 1985, when he was one of the 520 passengers killed in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123. The crash was caused by a mechanical failure, contrary to what other reports may suggest. It remains the deadliest single plane crash in history, and the worst-ever air disaster in Japan.