The Japanese are crazy about anything Western, especially anything American, right? It's true in many ways and on many levels, but one of my passions as a pop-culture critic has been to note how Americans are crazy about Japanese culture too.
Recently, the original Japanese version of "Godzilla, King of the Monsters," was released on DVD. It includes the full Japanese version, which made explicit references criticizing atomic power (remember, the Japanese are the only people on Earth who have been bombed by atomic weapons), but also includes the edited U.S. version, which took ot those references and added a subplot about an American jorunalist. played by Raymond Burr, after the fact. You can read my Gather article about it here.
"Godzilla," or as they pronounce it across the Pacific, "Gojira," is just one in a long line of Japanese imports that also includes Power Rangers, Nintendo, Speed Racer, the Walkman (yes, I count technology as a form of pop culture) and countless other toys and products such as cameras, stereos and other electronic appliances, and of course, some of the best-known and best-selling cars in the U.S. -- Honda, Toyota and Subaru.
But there've been relatively few pop musical imports from Japan. Mostly, that's because of the language barrier -- only a handful of foreign songs from any country have made the U.S. hit charts over the years. In the case of one modern band, the dance-pop group Pizzicato 5, a Japanese hit song several years ago was re-recorded in English for its American release.
There was one big hit that made it in the U.S. in its original Japanese version, however -- even though it had to be given a bizarre and pointless title before Americans could even hear it.
Kyu Sakamoto hit number-one on the U.S. charts on June 15, 1963, with "Sukiyaki," replacing Leslie Gore's "It's My Party" at the top.
Sakamoto, born in Kawasaki, started playing clubs while still in high school. He was signed as a "boy-next-door" type of star by a talent company in 1959, and recorded for Toshiba Records. By the time "Sukiyaki" was released in the U.S., he had 15 best-selling singles and eight albums in Japan, and had appeared in 10 movies. He was a superstar.
Here's the story of how the song was called "Sukiyaki" in the West.
The song was actually called "Ue O Muite Aruko," and it was a big hit in Japan upon its release. I remember hearing it in the car whenever my parents took us on drives around Tokyo. It's a sad love song where the singer's tears spill down as he walks with his face skyward.
Louis Benjamin, the head of Britain's Pye Records (the label that would a few years later be the first to record The Who), was visiting Japan on business in 1962, and brought the song back for jazzman Kenny Ball to record.
For the simple -- but condescending -- reason that British radio DJs might find the Japanese title hard to pronounce, the song was renamed "Sukiyaki," one of the few Japanese words most Westerners were already familiar with. Unfortunately it didn't have anything to do with the original title or the sad story in the song, but perhaps that wasn't taken into consideration because it was intended to be recorded as a jazz instrumental. I always thought it would have been better to name it "Sayonara," one of the other easily-recognized Japanese words of the day. Newsweek magazine commented at the time, "It is like releasing 'Moon River' in Japan with the title 'Beef Stew.'"
Ball's instrumental "Sukiyaki" went to number 10 in England in January 1963. Meanwhile in America, a DJ for station KORD in Pasco, Washington, got a hold of Sakamoto's original and found listeners liked the song. The regional airplay caught the attention of Capitol Records, which re-released it with the British title, again for the convenience of radio DJs and listeners who might buy the record. It was the first song sung in a foreign language to top the Top 100.
Country singer Clyde Beavers later recorded an English version, but his recording wasn't successful. A new generation of U.S. pop music fans know the song best from A Taste of Honey's 1981 release, which reached #3 on the charts with its silky, soulful translation.
Sakamoto died in a plane crash in the 1980s, but most Americans wouldn't know his name even if they do remember the melody.
Maybe Louis Benjamin did Ryu Sakamoto a favor by changing the name of the song to "Sukiyaki." It's possible that even though it's a great song, Westerners wouldn't have given it a chance if they had to stumble through its real title. But it still bothered me -- when we moved to the States and I found out for the first time that the song I knew from Japan was called "Sukiyaki," I was puzzled because I never heard that word anywhere in the lyrics.
It was only much later that I learned to accept that many things that don't make sense are done in the pursuit of profit.
(This column was originally a part of a lecture I gave at the offices of the Japan National Tourism Organization in Tokyo in 1994.)
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Comments: 20
How's that for a touching lyric?
I wonder why Mocedade's "Eres Tu" (spanish) made the hit list and not their English version,"Touch The Wind"
Other foreign language hits? Who can forget Plastic Bertrand's Ca plan pour moi in the late seventies?? As much as we may wish to ;)
LOL, you know, I saw stranger things than that living in Japan!
For one, Jeanne Deckers, "The Singing Nun," had the 1963 #1 hit "Dominique," which was sung in French.
I used to love that album! I still have it! I would always try to sing along. I'm sure that I screwed the words all up and I know I didn't know what they meant, but I didn't care!
Great article! :)
Ue O Muite Auruko was the theme song to a movie we saw staring Kuy Sakamoto. We went straight to the music store after the movie looking for the record. They didn't have it so we asked a Japanese friend if she could find it for us, and she delivered it to us shortly.
The following year we both returned to the states and attended a girl's school in Sierra Madre, CA. I had brought the record with me and played it often in my dorm room. One weekend, a 9th grade very thin blond girl with short curly hair, I believe with the last name of Benjamin, asked if she could take it to her dad's radio station and ask him if he'd play it on the air. He did, and it became popular. I have read this story about how the song became poputlar in the past and believe it may be incorrect. Is there any way to check all the facts? I've tried to find the fellow named Bejamin, to see if he's the father of my dorm mate, but had no sucess.
Thank you for your conversation about this topic.