Who recorded it first

Sukiyaki

Not an A Taste of Honey original — a 1961 Kyu Sakamoto single for Toshiba-EMI

A Taste of Honey’s smooth 1981 ballad is the version most listeners picture, and the English words on it are not a translation of anything — they were written from scratch. The record itself was first made by Kyu Sakamoto and issued in Japan on 15 October 1961 as “Ue o Muite Arukō” on Toshiba-EMI. The music is by Hachidai Nakamura and the Japanese lyrics are by Rokusuke Ei. Sakamoto’s original was no obscurity either — retitled “Sukiyaki” abroad, it went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, the first Japanese-language song ever to do so.

The record

Who recorded it first

Record
“Ue o Muite Arukō” (“Sukiyaki”)
First recorded by
Kyu Sakamoto
Released
15 October 1961 · Toshiba-EMI (Japan)
Written by
Hachidai Nakamura (music); Rokusuke Ei (Japanese lyrics)

Released Issued as a single in Japan on 15 October 1961 by Toshiba-EMI, credited to Kyu Sakamoto under its Japanese title “Ue o Muite Arukō.” It was later released abroad as “Sukiyaki” — Capitol/EMI in the US and Canada, His Master’s Voice in the UK.

Charted A major hit immediately: it topped Japan’s popular-music selling record chart for three months and was the country’s No. 1 song of 1961. In the United States it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1963, holding for three weeks, plus No. 1 Adult Contemporary and No. 18 R&B.

How we know

Kyu Sakamoto’s single was released in Japan on 15 October 1961 on Toshiba-EMI and issued abroad by Capitol/EMI and His Master’s Voice — see Wikipedia’s history of the song ↗.

Pye Records retitled it “Sukiyaki” for its Kenny Ball instrumental after label chief Louis Benjamin heard the record on business in Japan; Ball’s single reached the UK top ten in 1963 — uDiscover Music ↗.

The composition is credited to Hachidai Nakamura and Rokusuke Ei in the MusicBrainz work entry ↗.

Janice-Marie Johnson asked lyricist Rokusuke Ei for a literal translation and then wrote a wholly new English lyric for A Taste of Honey’s 1981 Capitol version — see the “A Taste of Honey version” section of Wikipedia’s article on the song ↗.

That version’s chart placings — No. 1 R&B and No. 3 pop for Capitol — are set out in the band history ↗.

Wikipedia: Sukiyaki (song) — original and cover versions
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Fact-check

The record, straightened out

The 1981 version is a cover, and the English words on it are not a translation of anything.

The famous versionCover, 1981

A Taste of Honey

Their Capitol single reached No. 1 R&B and No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1981, and for listeners who arrived after that it is simply what the song is — English words and all.

The originalFirst recording, 1961

Kyu Sakamoto

Released in Japan on 15 October 1961 as “Ue o Muite Arukō” on Toshiba-EMI. Retitled “Sukiyaki” abroad, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.

The writersMusic and Japanese lyrics

Hachidai Nakamura and Rokusuke Ei

Nakamura composed the melody; Ei wrote the Japanese words. The English lyric heard on the 1981 record was written from scratch by Janice-Marie Johnson.

The titleA renaming, not a lyric

Pye Records

The word “sukiyaki” appears nowhere in the song. Pye attached it in Britain, after label chief Louis Benjamin heard the record in Japan, because it was short and recognisably Japanese.

First recorded by Kyu Sakamoto, 1961, Toshiba-EMI — written by Hachidai Nakamura and Rokusuke Ei.

Context

Why the cover eclipsed the original

This one is unusual: the original was not buried, it was enormous. Sakamoto’s Japanese-language single reached No. 1 in the United States in 1963 — something no Japanese-language record has done since. The reason it slipped out of common memory is that the song acquired an English body without ever acquiring an English translation.

Janice-Marie Johnson asked Rokusuke Ei for a literal rendering of his words, found it produced nothing that worked as English, and wrote a completely new lyric about a lost love. So the 1981 record shares a melody and a borrowed title with the 1961 one and nothing else. When 4 P.M. took that same arrangement back into the US top ten in 1994, the English words were reinforced a second time. Two generations therefore learned a song whose actual first recording they had never heard.

The chronology
  • 1961 — Kyu Sakamoto records “Ue o Muite Arukō,” music by Hachidai Nakamura, Japanese lyrics by Rokusuke Ei. Toshiba-EMI issues the single in Japan on 15 October.
  • The record tops Japan’s popular-music selling chart for three months and is the country’s best-selling song of 1961.
  • Pye Records chief Louis Benjamin hears it on business in Japan and brings it home; Pye retitles it “Sukiyaki” for English-speaking markets, on the grounds that the Japanese title would defeat broadcasters. The word does not appear in the lyric.
  • 1963 — Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen’s instrumental, released by Pye under the Sukiyaki title, reaches No. 10 in the UK.
  • 1963 — Capitol releases Sakamoto’s own recording in the US after a DJ in Pasco, Washington (Rich Osborne, KORD) starts playing it. It enters the Hot 100 in May and reaches No. 1, holding three weeks.
  • 1981 — A Taste of Honey release their version on Capitol early in the year, with an entirely new English lyric by Janice-Marie Johnson. It hits No. 1 R&B and Adult Contemporary and No. 3 on the Hot 100.
  • 1994 — 4 P.M. take the same English arrangement to No. 8 on the Hot 100 for Next Plateau/London.
The title was a marketing convenience — the word never appears in the Japanese lyric.

The original recording artist

Kyu Sakamoto

1941-1985 · Japanese singer and actor · recorded the original in 1961

Sakamoto was 19 when he cut “Ue o Muite Arukō” for Toshiba-EMI, released in Japan on 15 October 1961. Renamed “Sukiyaki” for English-speaking markets, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1963 and made him the first Asian recording artist with a US No. 1. He remained a star in Japan as a singer and actor until he was killed in the crash of Japan Air Lines Flight 123 on 12 August 1985.

The version most people know

A Taste of Honey

Formed Los Angeles, 1972 · Capitol Records · No. 3 Hot 100 with “Sukiyaki” in 1981

The Los Angeles group founded by Janice-Marie Johnson and Perry Kibble won the 1979 Grammy for Best New Artist off the back of “Boogie Oogie Oogie.” Johnson had heard Sakamoto’s record as a child in 1963 and pushed Capitol to let her remake it; she contacted Rokusuke Ei for a literal translation, found it would not scan in English, and wrote an entirely new English lyric. Against advice to cut it as a dance track, the group kept it a ballad — and it went to No. 1 R&B and No. 3 pop in 1981. The record is genuinely superb; what it is not is a translation, or the first recording.

The composer

Hachidai Nakamura

Wrote the music of “Ue o Muite Arukō” (1961)

Nakamura was a jazz pianist and bandleader who composed the melody Sakamoto recorded in 1961 — the one element every later version, from Kenny Ball’s instrumental to A Taste of Honey’s ballad to 4 P.M.’s, actually keeps.

The lyricist

Rokusuke Ei

Wrote the Japanese lyrics of “Ue o Muite Arukō” (1961)

Ei wrote his words walking home from the 1960 Anpo protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, but kept them deliberately general so they would read as any lost love. He did not write the English words heard on the 1981 hit — those are Janice-Marie Johnson’s, written new after Ei supplied her with a literal translation of his own.