Ue wo Muite Arukou (Sukiyaki)
Ue wo Muite Arukou (Looking Up As I Walk) was a big hit for the Japanese singer Sakamoto Kyu (1941–1985). The lyrics by Rokusuke Ei were set to music by Nakamura Hachidai. As Sukiyaki, the song made it big in the United States, ranked No. 1 by Billboard magazine for the week ending June 15, 1963, and entering the Top 10 in the annual rankings for the same year. Here, we get to the bottom of the background and creation of a work that became a pioneer of Japanese content export, as it were.
SATO Go
Born in 1952. As a music producer, he has managed famous Japanese musicians including THE BOOM, Miyazawa Kazufumi and SUPER BUTTER DOG. Since 2004, he has been working on a project reviewing the values of Japanese rock, pop and so-called New Music, and establishing a category of “J-Standard” songs, namely those which will be sung by future generations and which may be considered cultural properties of Japan. Drawing on his concept of J-Standard, Sato worked as senior producer on the album “1969” by Pink Martini and Saori Yuki, which was released in October 2011 and topped the Jazz chart in Apple’s i-Tunes Store in the United States.
