Sukiyaki

Words & Music by Rokusuke Ei & Hachidai Nakamura
English lyrics by Tom Leslie & Buzz Cason
Recorded by Kyo Sakamoto, 1963 (#1


G    G/F#    Em       Am7  D9 G      G/F#    Em      Am7  D9
I'll hold my head up high,    Look - ing  up to the sky,

G  G/F#       Bm Bm7/E     Em   B+       Am Asus4  G   D9
So they won't see all the tears that are in   my  eyes.

G  G/F#      Am  Am+7 C    C/B     B7
No one will know,     I'm going through,

Em  C       Bm     Am        G       C - Bm - Am
My    first lonely night without you.

 

G G/F#      Em        Am7  D9 G     G/F#    Em     Am7  D9
I know the night will hide,   sad - ness I feel inside,

G  G/F#      Bm Bm7/E     Em   B+     Am Asus4   G   D9
no one will know of the smile and my lips won't tell them.

G   G/F#   Am  Am+7 C  C/B     B7
I'm losing you,    and going through,

Em  C       Bm     Am        G       C - Bm - Am
My    first lonely night without you.


Bridge:

C    C/B   Am7      Am7/G    G     D9     G5   G5/7
As I walk alone, the lonely winds seem to say,

 C         C/B      Cm  Cm7       G          Em7     Am7   D7
"From this darkness on, all your nights will be this way."

 

G  G/F#    Em   Am7  D9 G     G/F#    Em         Am7  D9
So I'll go on alone,       pretending you're not gone,

G  G/F#    Bm Bm7/E     Em   B+      Am Asus4  G   D9
But I can hide all the mo - ments of love we  knew.

G   G/F#    Am  Am+7 C  C/B     B7
Mem'ries of you      as  I go through,

Em  C       Bm     Am        G       C - Bm - Am
My    first lonely night without you


Adapted from an arrangement found at "Mary Lou's Oldies Site" (http://betty.hypermax.net.au/bettylouoldies1.htm). Sakamoto was one of the 520 people who died in the crash of a Japan Airlines 747 near Tokyo on August 12, 1985. He was 43. This song, orignally released in Japan as "Ue O Muite Aruko" (I Look Up When I Walk) is the first song to reach #1 in the United States having been performed entirely in Japanese.

I have not learned for certain who did the English translation. However, research conducted by good friend and lyrics guru Ron Hontz has turned up persuasive evidence that it was probably Marcel Stellman.



 
The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.