[Edward64]

(This was definitely not originally on my radar. But I heard it on the movie Bullet Train and then remembered hearing it way back when. )

Sukiyahi (real name is “Ue O Muite Aruko”)– Kyu Sakamoto

Record: ???, 1961

Official Video: None that I could find
Best Video: Sukiyaki Kyu Sakamoto FULL SONG ReEdit STEREO ReMix HiQ Hybrid JARichardsFilm 720p - YouTube
Best Cover: There’s several neat (but yeah, corny) ones out there

Katy Jones - A Taste of Honey - Sukiyaki (1980) - YouTube
Taste of Honey - A Taste Of Honey Sukiyaki on American Bandstand (Remastered) - YouTube (Americanized version)
Also, I did find the Bullet Train version but it was just a pic and did not find a live/choreographed version Soundtrack #12 | Sukiyaki | Bullet Train (2022) - YouTube

Lyrics: Sukiyaki Song - Lyrics in Japanese & English - Smile Nihongo (Japanese & English translation)

Awards:

In the US, "Sukiyaki" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963, one of the few non-English songs to have done so, and the first in a non-European language. It was the only single by an Asian artist to top the Hot 100 until the 2020 release of "Dynamite" by the South Korean band BTS.[5] "Sukiyaki" also peaked at number eighteen on the Billboard R&B chart,[6] and spent five weeks at number one on the Middle of the Road chart.[7]

Lyrics & Meaning:

Note that this is really an anti-American occupation of Japan song/sentiment.

"Ue o Muite Arukō" (pronounced [ɯe o mɯite aɾɯkoꜜː]) was written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura. The lyrics tell the story of a man who looks up and whistles while he is walking so that his tears will not fall, with the verses describing his memories and feelings. Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home from participating in the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, expressing his frustration and dejection at the failed efforts to stop the treaty.

However, the lyrics were purposefully generic so that they might refer to any lost love.[2][3]

The English-language lyrics of the version recorded by A Taste of Honey are not a translation of the original Japanese lyrics, but instead a completely different set of lyrics arranged to the same basic melody.

Misc Notes:

So how did this American disc jockey get a copy of the original song? Marsha Cunningham gave us the answer. She explained to us: "In 1961-2 I was a high school student at The American School In Japan, living in Zushi, Japan. My dad was a pilot for Japan Airlines. While enjoying a Japanese movie staring Kyu Sakamoto, I heard the most unbelievably beautiful song. I purchased the record at a local shop and brought it back to the states the next year when I attended a girl's boarding school in Sierra Madre, California. I played it in the dormitory frequently; everyone liked it. One girl took my record home with her on the weekend so her dad could play it on his radio station, and the rest is history!"

A Taste of Honey vocalist Janice-Marie Johnson would recall how at age nine she had heard Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" on the radio in the summer of 1963 and said: "Mom! Buy me this record!", as despite not understanding the lyrics she was deeply moved by the song. Constantly playing the single, Johnson phonetically learned its lyrics and taught them to her sister, with the pair participating in neighborhood talent shows singing "Sukiyaki" while performing their approximation of an Oriental dance number.[23] Years later, after A Taste of Honey had scored their 1978 number-one hit "Boogie Oogie Oogie", Johnson heard the Linda Ronstadt hit remake of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "Ooo Baby Baby" on her car radio causing Johnson to realize that remaking a 1960s hit could be a good career move for A Taste of Honey

An instrumental version of the song was played by NASA over the radio for the Gemini VII astronauts as mood music, thereby becoming one of the first pieces of music sent to humans in space.[19]

In the summer of 2021, the song was performed during the closing ceremony of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (which had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic).