![]() ” David Stewart even brought in veteran U.K. “Dynamite” is a particularly ingenious hybrid, grafting together-to my ears-the vibe of two massive retro hits from the past five years, Justin Timberlake’s sunny, Max Martin–produced “ Can’t Stop the Feeling” and Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ electro-funk reboot “ Uptown Funk. Indeed, “disco pop” is the genre tag most critics and appreciators have appended to the song, and in a year when ’70s-esque songs by Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, and Doja Cat have all done well, BTS has latched onto the pure-pop sound likeliest to break through on the charts worldwide. In theory, any type of contemporary music sung by a carefully groomed South Korean act can be K-pop, including on-trend, throwback disco. The thing about K-pop is that it’s an industry more than a sound. Blige-but to this day, Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki” stands as the first and only single performed in an Asian language to top the American chart. hits from everyone from A Taste of Honey to Doug E. ![]() In decades to come, the bewitching melody would find its way into multiple U.S. listeners-Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki,” in its original Japanese, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. rights to “Ue o Muite Arukō” and issued Kyu Sakamoto’s single under the same dumbed-down title Pye used for Ball’s cover, “ Sukiyaki.” Amazingly, in June 1963-more than six months before the Beatles broke in America, at a time when even British music still seemed exotic to U.S. (A Newsweek reporter later said this would be like remaking “Moon River” under the title “Beef Stew.”) In America, Kenny Ball’s cover was not a hit, but in 1963, a Washington radio DJ played the original Japanese recording and found his listeners swooning for it. He gave the record, titled “ Ue o Muite Arukō,” to Pye act Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen to record-but to make it more memorable for British listeners, the label issued Ball’s instrumental cover under the nonsensical, demeaning title “ Sukiyaki,” the name of the popular Japanese hot-pot dish. On a business trip through Japan in 1962, the president of Britain’s Pye Records heard an enchanting pop song by the young Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto and brought a copy of the 45 back with him to the U.K.
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