finetune artist: Kyu Sakamoto

b. 1941, Kawasaki, Japan, d. 12 August 1985. The original singer with the Paradise Kings, he signed to Toshiba Records in 1959 after being discovered singing in the tea rooms of his home-town. He had a succession of hits in Japan, but his only major worldwide hit was "Sukiyaki", in 1963. The reason for its international success was due to Louis Benjamin of Pye Records in England, who brought home a copy from Japan for popular trad-jazz clarinettist Kenny Ball. At this stage the record (written in 1962 by pianist Hachidai Nakamura and lyricist Rokusuke Ei) was called "Ueo Muite Aruko" ("Walk With Your Chin Up"). This duly changed to "Sukiyaki". Ball's version reached the Top 10 in the UK and interest was stirred in the original, which repeated the feat a few months later. Sakamoto never managed to duplicate his initial worldwide success (although the follow-up, "China Nights", was a minor US hit), but continued to be a star in Japan, appearing in many films and on television programmes. His career came to an abrupt end in 1985 when he was among the 520 passengers killed when a Japanese Boeing 747 civil aircraft crashed outside Tokyo.

Listen to Kyu Sakamoto at Finetune.

Sukiyaki