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.
Regardless of, as elsewhere, this throbbing digital monitor a couple of girl pining for a scarpered lover was huge. The chap’s ethnicity is simply 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 reworked into Aneka – a reputation she discovered within the cellphone e-book – and purchased a kimono to develop into a geisha lady 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 an everyday shopper of Japanese Boy songwriter Bobby Heatlie – at No.1, staying there for one week.
Geisha Woman
Japanese Boy sprevious nearly half 1,000,000 copies within the UK and made Aneka the second-best vendor by a solo feminine artist behind Kim Wilde’s Youngsters In America. She topped the chart in six international locations in complete, and whereas her subsequent finest effort within the UK was a follow-up referred to as Little Woman 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 below her actual identify. She retired from music within the 90s.
Sandeman featured in a 2006 Channel 4 programme titled Convey 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 attainable. Regardless of getting in contact with the singer, she declined to participate.
Learn Extra One-Hit Wonders – Finest Of The 80s