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Sukiyaki (song)

"Sukiyaki"
SukiyakiCover.jpg
Single by Kyu Sakamoto
from the album Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits (US)
B-side "Anoko No Namaewa Nantenkana"
Released 1961 (Japan)
1963 (US, UK)
Format 7" vinyl
Genre Pop, Kayōkyoku, Japanese pop
Length 3:05
Label Toshiba-EMI (Japan)
Capitol/EMI Records (US and Canada)
HMV/EMI Records (UK)
Writer(s) Rokusuke Ei (lyrics)
Hachidai Nakamura (music)
Music sample
"Sukiyaki"
Sukiyaki-a-taste-of-honey.jpg
Single by A Taste of Honey
from the album Twice As Sweet
B-side "Don't You Lead Me On"
Released March 1981
Recorded 1980
Genre R&BQuiet Storm
Length 3:41
Label Capitol B-4953
Writer(s) Hachidai Nakamura
Janice Marie Johnson (English lyrics)
Producer(s) George Duke
A Taste of Honey singles chronology
"Rescue Me"
(1980)
"Sukiyaki"
(1981)
"I'll Try Something New"
(1982)
"Sukiyaki"
Sukiyaki-4-pm.jpg
Single by 4 P.M.
from the album Now's the Time
Released September 6, 1994
Format CD and cassette single
Recorded 1994
Length 2:42
Label London Records (UK)
Writer(s) Hachidai Nakamura
Janice Marie Johnson (English lyrics)
4 P.M. singles chronology
"Sukiyaki"
(1995)
"Lay Down Your Love"
(1995)
Music video
"Sukiyaki" on YouTube
"Sukiyaki"
Selena - Sukiyaki cover.jpg
Single by Selena
from the album Selena
Released September 13, 1989
Format CD, 7" single
Recorded 1988
Genre Latin
Length 3:01
Label EMI
Writer(s) Hachidai Nakamura
Producer(s) A.B. Quintanilla III
Selena singles chronology
"Contigo Quiero Estar"
(1989)
"Sukiyaki"
(1989)
"Mentiras"
(1989)
Music sample

"Ue o Muite Arukō" (上を向いて歩こう?, "I Look Up As I Walk") is a Japanese-language song that was performed by Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto, and written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura. Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home from a Japanese student demonstration protesting continued US Army presence, expressing his frustration at the failed efforts.

In Anglophone countries, it is best known under the alternative title "Sukiyaki", a term with no relevance to the song's lyrics, as sukiyaki is a Japanese dish of cooked beef.

The song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the United States in 1963, one of the few non-Indo-European languages' songs to have done so.

It is one of the best-selling singles of all time, having sold over 13 million copies worldwide. The original Kyu Sakamoto recording also went to number eighteen on the R&B chart. In addition, the single spent five weeks at number one on the Middle of the Road charts. The recording was originally released in Japan by Toshiba in 1961. It topped the Popular Music Selling Record chart in the Japanese magazine Music Life for three months, and was ranked as the number one song of 1961 in Japan.

Well-known English-language cover versions with altogether different lyrics include "My First Lonely Night" by Jewel Akens in 1966 and "Sukiyaki" by A Taste of Honey in 1980. The song has also been recorded in other languages.


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Wikipedia

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