Biography
Kyu Sakamoto earned distinction as the first artist to top the pop charts with a recording performed wholly in Japanese, the 1963 release “Sukiyaki.” Although that milestone carries a lighthearted quality, the English rendering of its million-selling lyrics conveys only sorrow: “Sadness hides in the shadows of the stars/I look up when I walk so the tears wont fall....”
Born in Kawasaki, Japan, in 1941 to a restaurateur father, Sakamoto (pronounced “cue”) began performing in jazz clubs during his teenage years. Toshiba Records signed him in 1959, after which he scored multiple Japanese pop successes and made frequent appearances in films as well as on television and radio. During a business visit to Japan, Pye Records, Ltd. president Louis Benjamin encountered Sakamoto’s “Ue O Muite Aruko” (I Look up When I Walk). Benjamin retitled the song after his preferred Japanese dish, sukiyaki, and assigned a Pye jazz performer to cut a version that reached the U.K. Top Ten. The original recording then gained exposure on DJ Richard Osborne’s program at Pasco, Washington’s KORD, prompting the station to add it to heavy rotation in response to audience requests. Capitol Records subsequently secured U.S. rights, propelling Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki” to gold status and simultaneous placements on three Billboard charts—number one Pop for three weeks, number 18 R&B, and number one adult contemporary—throughout the summer of 1963. The B-side carried “Anoko No Namaewa Nantenkana.” Issued later that summer, the follow-up “China Nights” backed with “Benkyo No Cha Cha Cha” climbed to number 58 on the pop list. Additional singles included “Elimo” paired with “Why” and “Tankobushi” paired with “Olympics Song.” That same year Capitol issued Sakamoto’s sole American album, Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits. The song itself, now regarded as a standard, later returned to the charts via A Taste of Honey and the ’90s R&B act Four P.M. On August 12, 1985, near Tokyo, Sakamoto perished at age 43 in a plane crash that claimed 520 lives.
Born in Kawasaki, Japan, in 1941 to a restaurateur father, Sakamoto (pronounced “cue”) began performing in jazz clubs during his teenage years. Toshiba Records signed him in 1959, after which he scored multiple Japanese pop successes and made frequent appearances in films as well as on television and radio. During a business visit to Japan, Pye Records, Ltd. president Louis Benjamin encountered Sakamoto’s “Ue O Muite Aruko” (I Look up When I Walk). Benjamin retitled the song after his preferred Japanese dish, sukiyaki, and assigned a Pye jazz performer to cut a version that reached the U.K. Top Ten. The original recording then gained exposure on DJ Richard Osborne’s program at Pasco, Washington’s KORD, prompting the station to add it to heavy rotation in response to audience requests. Capitol Records subsequently secured U.S. rights, propelling Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki” to gold status and simultaneous placements on three Billboard charts—number one Pop for three weeks, number 18 R&B, and number one adult contemporary—throughout the summer of 1963. The B-side carried “Anoko No Namaewa Nantenkana.” Issued later that summer, the follow-up “China Nights” backed with “Benkyo No Cha Cha Cha” climbed to number 58 on the pop list. Additional singles included “Elimo” paired with “Why” and “Tankobushi” paired with “Olympics Song.” That same year Capitol issued Sakamoto’s sole American album, Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits. The song itself, now regarded as a standard, later returned to the charts via A Taste of Honey and the ’90s R&B act Four P.M. On August 12, 1985, near Tokyo, Sakamoto perished at age 43 in a plane crash that claimed 520 lives.
Albums
Singles
