Japanese Boy was successful just about in every single place besides, oddly sufficient, Japan. In line with singer Mary Sandeman, it was as a result of the melody sounded too Chinese language.
Irrespective of, as elsewhere, this throbbing digital observe a couple of girl pining for a scarpered lover was large. The chap’s ethnicity is barely revealed within the refrain, so an apparent gimmick to lift the music to a better standing was wanted.
It meant that Sandeman, a 33-year-old folks singer from Edinburgh, wanted a brand new identify and picture, particularly when producer Neil Ross put the Oriental riff on the intro.
And so she remodeled into Aneka – a reputation she discovered within the telephone guide – and purchased a kimono to turn into a geisha woman for the sleeve and the TV. A month after coming into the charts at No.60 in August 1981, Aneka was changing Shakin’ Stevens – quickly to be a daily consumer of Japanese Boy songwriter Bobby Heatlie – at No.1, staying there for one week.
Geisha Woman
Japanese Boy soutdated virtually half 1,000,000 copies within the UK and made Aneka the second-best vendor by a solo feminine artist behind Kim Wilde’s Children In America. She topped the chart in six nations in whole, and whereas her subsequent finest effort within the UK was a follow-up known as Little Girl that reached No.50, she managed extra High 10 hits on the continent.
Her album, Aneka, solely charted in Switzerland and Finland. In 1984, she dropped the Aneka moniker, reverting to folks singing in Scotland underneath her actual identify. She retired from music within the 90s.
Sandeman featured in a 2006 Channel 4 programme titled Carry Again The One Hit Wonders, the place comic Justin Lee Collins tried to organise a one-off efficiency by as many one hit wonders as potential. Regardless of getting in contact with the singer, she declined to participate.
Learn Extra One-Hit Wonders – Finest Of The 80s