Kyu Sakamoto

Kyu Sakamoto

Kyu Sakamoto (坂本 九, Sakamoto Kyū, born Hisashi Oshima (大島九, Ōshima Hisashi), December 10, 1941 - August 12, 1985) was a Japanese singer and actor.

He is ranked at number 18 in a list of Japan's top 100 influential musicians by HMV Japan.

Biography

Early years (1941–1949)

Childhood in Kawasaki and Kasama

Kyu Sakamoto was born on December 10, 1941, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture to the tender cargo officer Hiroshi Sakamoto and Iku Oshima. He was the youngest among nine siblings—his nickname Kyu, meaning 'nine', is an alternate reading of the kanji (九) for his given name (Hisashi). Iku had two sons from an earlier relationship and Hiroshi three sons and three daughters. Kyu was their third and last child together.

In the summer of 1944 during the air raids over the greater Tokyo area, including Kawasaki, Iku fled with the younger children, including Kyu, and his siblings Teruaki, Yachiyo and Azuma to their grandparents, Seri and Aou Oshima who lived on the countryside in Kasama. The rest of the family stayed and miraculously survived the violent air raids. In the summer of 1949 the family was reunited and moved back to Kawasaki. Like so many other Japanese companies Hiroshi's office was disbanded by the American occupation forces, soon after he started a restaurant together with Iku.

(1956–1958)

Teenage life

In 1956 when Kyu was still in junior high school his parents divorced. It was Hiroshi's heavy drinking and long history of economic problems that made them separate. Iku got the custody over the children they got together (they were at his time still under age) and they then got the surname "Oshima" while the remaining children kept the family name "Sakamoto". When Kyu began high school his interest for music grew and he started playing the trumpet in the school band. Later on he began to sing and became very popular. In 1958 he joined the Japanese pop-band "The Drifters" as a singer.

First recordings (1959-1960)

JVC and Toshiba Records

In May 1958, when Kyu was 16 years old he joined the Japanese pop-band The Drifters that had been formed three years earlier. Kyu was unhappy about his position in the band as second singer and this often led to fights with the other members. His big breakthrough as a band member came august 26, 1958 when he sang at the annual music festival "Western Carnival" at the Nichigeki hall. Kyu wanted to move on and become something greater, after a quarrel which ended in a fight with two of the other members he left the band in November 1958.

For a short period of time Kyu returned to his studies and focused on entering the university. But in December 1958 he joined his classmate's Hisahiko Iida's band called "Danny Iida & Paradise King". He replaced Hiroshi Mizuhara as singer. Now Kyu's career took off, he ended his studies and left school. In June 1959 the band got a record deal at the JVC record company. "Danny Iida & Paradise King" and Kyu released their song "Kanashiki rokujyussai" in august 1960 which became a great hit. In the time after they released a number of songs that became very popular. This lead to Kyu obtaining a record deal at the Toshiba Records company and left "Danny Iida & Paradise King" aimng at a solo career.

Commercial breakout (1961-1963)

Debut album and international success

Original Japanese album cover for "Ue wo muite arukou"

Kyu's solo career was inaugurated with the love song "Ue o muite arukō" written Rokusuke Ei and Hachidai Nakamura. The song was first heard on the NHK entertainment program "Yume de aimashou" on August 16, 1961. It was a great success and was released on a red vinyl on October 15. It remained the highest selling record until January 1962, three months after its release.

His international breakthrough came in 1963, during a visit to Japan by Louis Benjamin, owner of British record company Pye Records. Hearing the song several times, Benjamin decided to bring it back to England. Due to concerns that the title would be too hard for English speakers to pronounce or remember, the song was renamed "Sukiyaki". The new title was intended to sound both catchy and distinctively Japanese, but had no actual connection to the song.

Initially, Pye Records released an instrumental version of the song recorded by Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen. After it went on to become a great hit in England, His Master's Voice (HMV) released the original which also sold well, reaching sixth place in HMV's most sold records. In June 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the USA with the alternate title, eventually selling over one million copies and remaining number one on the "Billboard Hot 100 number one single" from June 15 to June 29..

After the international success of "Sukiyaki" in 1963, Kyu was invited to appear in several television shows and music arrangements outside of Japan. He landed at Los Angeles International Airport on August 13 and was a guest of "The Steve Allen Show" that evening. He was supposed to be a guest on "The Ed Sullivan Show" as well, but this appearance was canceled due to a scheduling conflict with the production of his upcoming movie, "Kyu-chan katana wo nu ite".

The career (1961-1985)

Following his success with "Sukiyaki", Kyu went out on a world tour that lasted from summer 1963 to the beginning of 1964. A few of the countries that he visited included the United States (including Hawaii), Germany, and Sweden. He had only one other song reach the U.S. charts, "China Nights (Shina no Yoru)" (Capitol 5016), which peaked at #58 in 1963. His only American album, Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits (Capitol 10349), peaked at #14 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart (now known as the Billboard 200) in 1963 and remained on the Pop Albums chart for 17 weeks.

He received his first and only foreign Gold Record by Capitol Records on May 15, 1964 in Hotel Okura, Tokyo.

During the 1964 Summer Olympics, he was featured on the famous Swedish TV-program "Hylands Hörna" when it was broadcast live from Tokyo.

In 1968 Kyu and Hachidai Nakamura participated in the international singing contest "Festival Internacional da Canção" in Rio de Janeiro with the song "Sayounara, sayounara".

Death

On August 12, 1985, Kyu Sakamoto died in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123. Before the aircraft crashed, Sakamoto wrote a farewell note to his wife, Yukiko Kashiwagi. Married in 1971, they had two daughters, Hanako and Maiko.

Success outside Japan

His most popular song, "Ue o muite arukō" ("I look up when I walk") was popular around the world. In 1963, the British record label Pye Records released a cover version of the song by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen. They were concerned that English-speaking audiences might find the original title too difficult to remember/pronounce, so they gave it the new title of "Sukiyaki'". This title was retained when Capitol Records in the United States, and His Master's Voice (HMV) in the UK, released Kyu Sakamoto's original version a few months later. The song topped the Billboard pop charts in the United States for three weeks in 1963 — to date the only song sung entirely in Japanese to do so. In the UK, it was the first ever Japanese language song to enter the charts, but only went to number 6 with no further chart entries. Well-known English-language cover versions include a 1981 cover by A Taste of Honey and a 1995 cover by 4 P.M.

Sakamoto had only one other song reach the U.S. charts, "China Nights (Shina no Yoru)" (Capitol 5016), which peaked at #58 in 1963. His only American album, Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits (Capitol 10349), peaked at #14 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart (now known as the Billboard 200) in 1963 and remained on the Pop Albums chart for 17 weeks.

In the summer of 1963, Kyu went out on a world tour that lasted to the beginning of 1964. A few of the countries that he visited included the United States (including Hawaii), Germany, and Sweden. When Sakamoto visited the United States, he was a guest on The Steve Allen Westinghouse Show with Steve Allen. He was supposed to be on The Ed Sullivan Show, but it was cancelled due to the recording of his upcoming movie Kyu chan no katana wo nuite.

Discography

• Sukiyaki And Other Japanese Hits (1963)
• Kyu Sakamoto Memorial Best (2005)
• Kyu Sakamoto CD & DVD The best (2005)

Filmography

• Takekurabe (たけくらべ, 1955)
• Everything Goes Wrong (すべてが狂ってる Subete ga kurutteru, 1960)
• Kigeki: ekimae danchi (1961)
• Ushichi jini aimasho (1963)
• Clap your hands when you are happy (Shiawase nara te o tatake, 1964)
• Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (Garibā no Uchū Ryokō, 1965)
• Kyu-chan's Big Dream (Kyu-chan no Dekkai Yume, 1967)
• Tokkan (1975)

Documentaries

• Ue wo Muite Arukou~Sakamoto Kyu Monogatari (2005)

Legacy

• Kyu Sakamoto Memorial Hall
• The asteroid 6980 Kyusakamoto is named after Kyu Sakamoto.

See also

• J-pop
• Enka
• Ryūkōka

External links

• Kyu Sakamoto's official website (Japanese)
• Kyu Sakamoto at IMDb