Ue o Muite Arukō (translation: "I shall walk looking up") is a Japanese-language song that was performed by Japanese crooner (there's an image) Kyu Sakamoto in 1961. It is best known under the alternative title Sukiyaki. As well as domestic success, the song also topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, the only Japanese-language song to do so.
Amongst over versions, it was covered by A Taste of Honey (perhaps better known for the hit Boogie Oogie Oogie) in 1980 and reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1981, also making it to the number 1 spot on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and Soul charts. The Taste of Honey version used English-language lyrics, written by group member Janice Marie Johnson, who was given permission by the original song's copyright holders to write the English-language lyrics on the understanding that she receive neither official credit nor remuneration. Johnson is quoted in The Billboard Book of Number One R&B Hits by Fred Bronson as saying that when she translated the original Japanese lyrics into English, she found out that the lyrics could be interpreted in three ways: as a man on his way to his execution, as someone trying to be optimistic despite life's trials, or as the story of an ended love affair. "Me being the hopeless romantic that I am," she explained, "I decided to write about a love gone bad."
A Taste Of Honey's version of Sukiyaki first appeared on their 1980 album Twice As Sweet.
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