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First, forget the title: this song has nothing to do with food, and never did. Blame Louis Benjamin, head of Britain's Pye Records, who heard Sakamoto's forlorn love-gone-away ballad on a Toshiba recording while visiting Japan, and brought a copy back to Blighty, where he planned to have Kenny Ball's trad-jazz band record the song sans lyrics. Figuring that no one would comprehend the real title, "Ue o muite arukö" — "When I walk I shall look up" — he affixed a title using a Japanese word he actually knew. (As a Newsweek columnist would later note, this was like selling "Moon River" in Japan under the title "Beef Stew"; you can read the complete lyrics and a reasonable translation here.) Ball's version made the UK Top Ten, but did not chart Stateside. Meanwhile, a DJ in the Pacific Northwest had acquired a copy of Sakamoto's Toshiba 45 and put it on the air; it was well received, prompting EMI, a partner in Toshiba's record business, to issue it on Capitol, where it sold briskly. (EMI also put it out in Britain as HMV POP 1171.) Kyu (pronounced "Q") toured the States to support the record; he would have one more US chart single, "Shina no yori," translated as "China Nights," which as Capitol 5016 topped out at #58, and the album Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits, Capitol T 10349, which inexplicably included a cover of Jimmy Jones' "Good Timin'." Sakamoto's career continued in Japan; he was killed in the 1985 crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 60 miles from Tokyo, still in his forties.
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Where can I get this on CD?
Look for Eric Records' Hard to Find 45s on CD, Vol. 7: More Sixties Classics (11513-2), which features a lovely stereo remix by Mark Mathews. Neither amazon.com nor iTunes carries it in downloadable form, though they both have the Kenny Ball version, and the 1981 remake by A Taste of Honey is easy to find.
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Copyright © 2008 by Charles G. Hill
Chart information from Billboard is copyrighted by Billboard Publications, Inc.