How well do you remember Japanese song Sukiyaki?

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Frosty_Employment171@reddit

i've been singing it all week. with nonsense lyrics, of course.

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Ue o Muite Arukō! There’s also the English version from a Taste of Honey that some people might be more familiar with. That version has been sampled in La Di Da Di, Everything, and lots of other songs, and has lots of covers too. The lyrics in the English version are changed to be a love song, though.

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TheJokersChild@reddit

Loved Taste Of Honey's version. I was little when it came out so I heard this before the original it was based on.

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omgcheez@reddit

I’m Early Z/a late 90’s baby, and the English version is wha my parents were the most familiar with. I don’t remember hearing either until I was in HS and my teacher played the original. I talked to my parents about it, and idk if they even knew that there was a JP version but recognized the melody.

I think it’s very interesting how it was adapted to be explicitly a love song, while the original was about US/JP treaty, but could be read as a song about relationships if you wanted.

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milkandsugar@reddit

I found it on YouTube and listened to it. Does not ring a bell at all. Of course if it has been used as a part of a sound track in TV or movies, I have probably heard it, but there's nothing memorable about it. It's an old fashioned sounding song in another language. Not generally something one would be drawn to, in my opinion.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

It was in a lot of films and tv shows as a soundtrack. Also in USA somebody made successful cover but with different lyrics.

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scro-hawk@reddit

I remember it!!!

I remember the phrase “and you went away” or something similar. Has a Shaminsen in it if I’m not mistaken.

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jigokubi@reddit

Just listened to it for the first time. No shamisen, but the version by Taste of Honey, which I think Sooner70 is referring to, features a koto.

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Sooner70@reddit

The original was all in Japanese. In the 1980s there was a cover with English lyrics. And yes, “and you went away” appeared in the cover.

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TillikumWasFramed@reddit

I remember it now that you brought it up! CRINGE!!

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jigokubi@reddit

I don't, although I had heard of it, maybe because sukiyaki is one of my favorite foods. But:

Last summer, my wife and I were doing yardwork. She's Japanese. Later, she told me that a guy rode by on a bike whistling Sukiyaki.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

well it was released in 1961. It is very long time. But i think whistle should make it familiar

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TerpBE@reddit

The tune is used in Slick Rick's "La Di Da Di", Ave Snoop Dogg's remake. "It's all because of you, I'm feeling sad and blue..."

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JesusStarbox@reddit

I'm surprised more people don't know it from that. Maybe if they heard the tune.

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yuukosbooty@reddit

I’m 31 and I know it from the Ghibli movie From Up on Poppy Hill

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dvoecks@reddit

I faintly remember a cover coming out in the early 90s.

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riptor3000@reddit

Yeah it was by a sort of Boyz II Men knockoff. Its a beautiful song and utterly insane that they called it sukiyaki in america

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jamiesugah@reddit

4 PM (4 Positive Music)! Love that song.

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gorobotkillkill@reddit

Yeah, I remember that one, 1995. It hit #8, I didn't remember it being that big.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSYS7cPc3nE

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zfcjr67@reddit

A Taste of Honey did a cover in 1980 that did very well in the US market. They modified the words to have a better flow in English. The record label was against the song, saying it wouldn't chart at all, but it eventually made it to the top 10 for most US music charts.

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Ancient0wl@reddit

My dad knows it pretty well, I’m just passively familiar with it.

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althill@reddit

I know this song from my father. It was the last song g he listened to before he died. It was really popular when he was in high school.

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Sooner70@reddit

I’m in my 50s but I know the song well. My mom loved it and played it often.

Also worth nothing that in the 1980s Peaches and Cream (?) did a cover of it with English lyrics.

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danielsaun@reddit

I am Gen X and that song was before my time but because of my parents I know that song very well.

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AnotherPint@reddit

I remember it very well. It hit in the United States at the same time as a general cultural fascination with Japan and the Orient (as they said in those days), although the complexities were diluted for American tastes. There were Flower Drum Song, The World of Suzie Wong, etc. for Chinese cultural “sampling”, Godzilla films for Japan, plus Americans were just starting to venture to try Americanized Asian food. So the Sukiyaki song (1961) arrived at an opportune moment.

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MattieShoes@reddit

Born in the 70s -- I've never heard this song before in my life.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

Unless you heard english version with different lyrics and in some commercial, movies or tv shows

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Otherwise_Trust_6369@reddit

I'm GenX and I've always really liked it, as does my Baby Boomer mother.

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Building_a_life@reddit

I remember it well. I am humming the catchy melody now as I type.

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_HeyGFY_@reddit

I'm 56 and I remember it. The actual title in Japanese translates to "I Look Up as I Walk" and the song has nothing to do with food.

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

I was born well after the 60s and I know this song. I remember it coming on the radio once as a kid and being shocked when my parents, who did not speak Japanese, immediately started singing along. I was like "wtf is happening". They told me about how it was this random huge hit when they were young. Since then I've heard it a few times.

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WFOMO@reddit

I remember it well. I don't remember anyone that could sing along with it.

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

anyone can sing along to Louie Louie if they believe in themselves.

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Asshole_Poet@reddit

I know the word that begins with F and ends with fuck.

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LEPOL@reddit

I remember first hearing it on an episode of the Tracey Ullman Show, but it's the 90s version that I remember best.

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Crayshack@reddit

Not sure I've ever heard it.

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Puzzleheaded_Age6550@reddit

I do not remember this song at all. I am 66.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

You might know it from sound rather than a name of the song

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Puzzleheaded_Age6550@reddit

No, I looked it up on youtube prior to commenting. Never heard it before. I was 4 when it was released.

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lokland@reddit

Pft that would’ve been helpful info earlier dude. No shit you didn’t remember it, you were fucking 4. This is for people who could purchase and listen to music when it came out.

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goblin_hipster@reddit

Jeez, dude, 4-year-olds can remember songs...you think parents never played the radio around them?

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Puzzleheaded_Age6550@reddit

You seem lovely. Then explain how knew ALL of the songs (save one) from Fallout when they were all released well before my birth.

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growing_fatties@reddit

I'm not quite as old, but I've never heard this either. Just played it for my father, who was born in the 50s, and he doesn't know it either. You'd expect such a "successful" song to be featured in movies or TV or even a commercial by 60 years later.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

Mad Men Season 2 ep 2 features the song

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growing_fatties@reddit

Just one episode of one show that I've never had an interest in watching? Yeah, that's not gonna put it on my radar at all.

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Hey-Bud-Lets-Party@reddit

The song was also in the movies Bullet Train, The Double, Charlie’s Angels, Inherent Vice and the Tv show The Man in the High Castle.

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growing_fatties@reddit

The only one of those I've seen was bullet train, and I must have just been completely oblivious to it playing. Honestly, the only thing from that soundtrack that stood out to me was that Japanese cover of "holding out for a hero." I don't think anything else even registered on my radar.

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Hey-Bud-Lets-Party@reddit

There you go, so you have heard it!

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growing_fatties@reddit

I apparently heard it multiple times, which makes it worse because that means I just completely ignored it more than once. If it was a song that I was actually familiar with, I would have recognized it.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

There were lots of covers in english too.

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growing_fatties@reddit

I also just read that it was played at the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony, which I definitely watched. I must have just been oblivious to hearing it.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

Sometimes people just were oblivious and never pick it up

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growing_fatties@reddit

I don't know if I would call a song "successful" if people didn't pay attention when it played.

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Hey-Bud-Lets-Party@reddit

It was a top 10 hit all over the world, including #1 in the U.S.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

One Hit Wonder. But comments below shows that actually there are many people who aware of it, listen to it later when somebody remade it

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Puzzleheaded_Age6550@reddit

I have an undergrad degree in music. I can remember tunes really well. Never heard it. However, in the Fallout series, I have been able to sing aling with every song except one, and those songs were released before I was born.

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growing_fatties@reddit

None that I ever encountered.

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

It actually gets used fairly frequently. It's probably the main place it gets played in the US these days.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0757085/

I can really find a comprehensive list but IMDB has a lot of the recent, American, more prominent ones.

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YerbaPanda@reddit

You might give it a listen. I’d be willing to bet that you would recognize the tune even if you don’t remember it.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6meIeOX3DHdaCnaNw67abE?si=TIuqYmIbSFuNJuEiw5JNog

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Puzzleheaded_Age6550@reddit

Nope, as I said in an earlier comment, I looked it up, I have never heard it.

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jessek@reddit

My dad likes it and had me add it to a playlist of songs on his iPad. I think it's a nice song, but I'm someone who likes oldies from the 1960s. Most people my age or younger will not know it. I do like a lot of Japanese music but it tends to be stuff like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Shonen Knife, Boris, Guitar Wolf, Otoboke Beaver, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re, etc.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

Song is featured in films and tv shows

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jessek@reddit

Yeah, but it's not really something anyone younger than me knows. It was on Mad Men but it's pretty much a thing with people my parents' age.

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SicTim@reddit

I remember it both from being a kid in the '60s, then looking it up on YouTube years ago and watching a version with the lyrics.

From the music, I always thought it was an upbeat, happy song. Discovering it was actually a sad song threw me for a loop.

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c8bb8ge@reddit

I'm 39 and remember it because my parents had it in their collection or 45s and I thought it was interesting because it was their only record in another language. Good song, too.

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pogidaga@reddit

I don't remember hearing this song when it was an international hit because I was only four years old at the time. I don't remember exactly when I heard it for the first time, but it could not have been later than my teenage years. I have listened to it many times and know it well. I think if somebody played it for me as a mystery song, I would know what it was after only three notes.

The history of this is song seems ironic to me. The composer, Rokusuke Ei, wrote the lyrics in 1960 after a massive protest by Japanese people failed to prevent the continued hosting of American troops in Japan. A few years later this song became a number one hit in America, but almost nobody here knew the origin of the lyrics.

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sneezhousing@reddit

46 no idea about that song

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Mental_Freedom_1648@reddit

You might remember the 90s cover.

https://youtu.be/ueVjrc7YYoE?si=IEb8xYAWLLSm7ohe

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sneezhousing@reddit

Vaguely wasn't really big

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I_am_Russ_Troll@reddit

One of my favorite songs

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MissHibernia@reddit

I loved this song! Also the Italian song ‘Volare’ was popular around this time.

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Vesper2000@reddit

I have it in my head right now. It was everywhere in 1970’s and 80’s Los Angeles

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

A one hit wonder that was a thing for a few weeks 60 years ago isn't the sort of thing most Americans are going to remember.

It's not the sort of thing most Americans were alive for.

If you look at the Billboard charts from the era:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1963

You'll see a lot of American artists, with much longer careers that aren't exactly part of the popular imagination. It's an era of music that even stopped being part of "oldies" stations and throw back venues 30 years ago. In particular I'd point out that this style of music (often referred to as "pop crooners"), was mainly something that was charting in 60s down to older audiences. The girl groups, The Beach Boys, and early Rock artists were driven by young people. The Beatles first album would come out in the US just a year after Sukiyaki, and drive something of a metric shift in the American Pop scene.

People who are aware of the song are either into Japanese post war music, pop music of that era, or some other angle. And the only place most people would encounter it is tv and film soundtracks, where it pops up from time to time. I'm only a bit familiar with it down to that last bit, and fondness for ephemera.

It's more of an "are you aware of" not a "how well do you remember".

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Sweet_Cinnabonn@reddit

Oh hey, I remember that song!

No idea where from. I've heard it in a background of some movie or show.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

Mad Men bc it was set in 60s. But from commercial might be

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Judgy-Introvert@reddit

Had to look it up. I’ve never heard it until now. I’m 55 if that matters.

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the_short_viking@reddit

It's been sampled a bunch in American hip hop and R&B.

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cIumsythumbs@reddit

I grew up listening to an oldies station that played 50s/60s music. I knew it from then. Then I got big into anime and learning Japanese as a teenager (1998-2003ish). Found Sukiyaki again and it was on several of my burned CDs and my first ipod playlist. I can sing it from memory.

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Mental_Freedom_1648@reddit

I didn't expect to know this, because the 60s were before my time, but I remember this, which was apparently a cover

https://youtu.be/ueVjrc7YYoE?si=IEb8xYAWLLSm7ohe

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teemell19@reddit

I heard it growing up from my grandparents and I still really enjoy it. I was born in 1988.

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upvoter222@reddit

The only reason I've heard of Sukiyaki is because it's referenced in La Di Da Di, which has gotten referenced or sampled in tons of other songs.

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lokland@reddit

I know it, I saw a commercial that had used it. The melody stuck with me, kinda like this Sinatra songs you hear once and recognize forever.

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SabresBills69@reddit

I was born after this song…

only ones familiar with it …

those who listened to pop music in the 69s when this was a poo hit.
those who watch Mad Men and picked up on the song asking what is that. It makes sense to be on there because the series was set for then.

could there have been remakes by American artists or those who just used the music is possible

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VirginiaLuthier@reddit

Oh yeah, I remember it. And that it had nothing to do with Japanese food:

In Anglophone countries, the song is best known under the alternative title "Sukiyaki", the name of a Japanese hot pot dish with cooked beef. The word sukiyaki does not appear in the song's lyrics, nor does it have any connection to them; it was used only because it was short, catchy, recognizably Japanese, and more familiar to English speakers. A Newsweek columnist compared this renaming to issuing "Moon River" in Japan under the title "Beef Stew".[6]

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DesertKangarooRat@reddit

My parents played that song over and over and over again every morning when I was younger so I know that song pretty well enough to sing actually

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patawpha@reddit

What a lovely song. I am 58 and the melody sounds a little familiar but other than that I was unaware of it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention though.

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flp_ndrox@reddit

Big hit, there were a few covers in the 90s (IIRC) that did well on the charts.

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machagogo@reddit

Just listened to it. Never heard it before. Am 52

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wordsznerd@reddit

I remember it, but I only heard it in English

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B_Williams_4010@reddit

I prefer the parody: 'Icky Yucky Sushi'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmPU1qgDCVY

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sjedinjenoStanje@reddit

I was in traffic school (to get a speeding ticket off my record) and the instructor sang it to us at one point. She wasn't Japanese and the song had absolutely nothing to do with the class. I still wonder what possessed the instructor to do that lol

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callmeKiKi1@reddit

I remember the tune, but not much else.

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Medical-Pace-8099@reddit (OP)

Whistle right?

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