Kyu Sakamoto

About Kyu Sakamoto

Kyu Sakamoto recorded Ue o Muite Arukou in 1961 as a Japanese pop ballad with a wistful melody by Hachidai Nakamura. EMI released it in the US in 1963 under the unrelated title Sukiyaki and it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that June, the only Japanese-language song ever to do so. He sold more than thirteen million copies worldwide and was on Japan Airlines Flight 123 when it crashed in Gunma in August 1985, killing him at forty-three.