July 7, 2008


I misheard

all of the lyrics to Kyu Sakamoto’s “Ue wo muite arukou” (released as “Sukiyaki” in the United States, where for three weeks in 1963 it was at the top of Billboard’s Pop chart).

Great video.

A sad aside: Kyu Sakamoto was a passenger on Japan Airlines Flight 123 on August 12, 1985. Flight 123 crashed into Osutaka Ridge outside Tokyo; all members of the crew and all but four of the 509 passengers died. The crash remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster ever.

posted by Sheila Ryan in international, memory, music 

comments

3 Responses to “I misheard”

  1. Sheila Ryan on July 7th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    See also: entry for main-belt asteroid 6980 Kyusakamoto in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database.

    Discovered 1993 Sept. 16 by K. Endate and K. Watanabe at Kitami.

    Named in memory of Kyu Sakamoto (1941-1985), a popular singer in Japan who was beloved as Kyu-chan. His songs “Let’s walk turning our faces upward”, “Look up at the stars at night” and others were big hits. The first song (English title “Sukiyaki”) became one of the world’s bestsellers. This planet also symbolizes the famous trio of which Kyu Sakamoto was a member, with songwriter Rokusuke Ei and pianist Hachidai Nakamura: in Japanese, Roku is 6, Kyu 9 and Hachi 8. Name proposed by the discoverers following a suggestion by T. Sato, A. Fujii and Y. Katagiri.

  2. jandek on July 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    I knew, without a doubt, as I read the first line of this, that it was posted by Sheila.

  3. Sheila Ryan on July 7th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    I think that I am happy about what Jandek says.

    I think . . .

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