Listen: A Taste of Honey – Sukiyaki
A few months back, I cataloged some 7-inch singles that have been sitting in the closet, which gave me opportunity to seek these songs out on various online retailers. Many of these singles date back to 1980, when I was a wee youngster bugging my mom to get me this or that.
My music collecting habit didn’t really take off till 1984, but these early purchases were a harbinger of things to come.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a "Listen" column, so over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some of these songs with you. (All files detonate after a week, of course.)
A Taste of Honey’s "Sukiyaki" isn’t really a cover of Sakamoto Kyu’s US hit from the 1950’s. The English lyrics aren’t a translation of the original. An 8-year-old, however, wouldn’t really care about that. Back then, I just dug the mix of koto with Western instruments, something that would reinforced a number of years later when Hiroshima recorded "Hawaiian Electric".
If I were to cover the song today, I’d probably do the original Japanese version, but I couldn’t do it in an enka style.
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