One-Hit Wonder: Kyu Sakamoto

A popular Japanese singer with a song that went through title changes -- Kyu Sakamoto, according to history.com.

Kyu Sakamoto, a popular Japanese singer, hit the charts with "Ue O Muite Aruk?" -- "I Look Up When I Walk." After a British music executive heard it, he made the song into an instrumental and retitled it "Sukiyaki" because it was recognizable.

In the U.S., a disc jockey played Kyu Sakamoto's version and it topped the charts for three weeks in June 1963.

According to National Public Radio, Ian Condry from MIT translates "Sukiyaki":

Walking along, looking up, so that the teardrops

won't flow out of my eyes

I look up back on a spring day on this lonely night

A good fortune is beyond the clouds

A good fortune is beyond the sky

I look up and I'm looking forward, imagining that good fortune in the future

Condry says that "Sukiyaki" is about a song looking back, and being on the cusp of something better in the future. The song was written by Rokusuke Ei; however, there is another spelling, Rokusukay Ey.

In 1985, Kyu Sakamoto was killed in a tragic plane crash going from Tokyo to Osaka. The plane lost parts of its tail and spiraled for 30 minutes, crashing into a wooded mountain, killing 520 and injuring four.