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Comment by jeff_redradish | Hacker News Reader

As a child I remember hearing a beautiful song, sung in Japanese (so not searchable by anglo me), and today I finally found it [1]. Thanks Google!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTsG9jrJsU

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Ha! From the get go I remembered I heard this song in a Studio Ghibli movie, then a google search quickly told that it was on From Up On Puppy Hill :-p. I love the Internet.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Sukiyaki+studio+ghibli&t=brave&ia=...

lol. Poppy Hill.

The English language version I'd always heard was the 4PM cover [0], which I just found out was originally by A Taste of Honey in the 80s [1].

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueVjrc7YYoE

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqFkUNqBwMw

Funny, I recognized the melody from the Slick Rick song La Di Da Di.

https://youtu.be/zk4Y7SbTQK8?t=164

Warning: potentially NSFW - language (for those still in offices)

How exactly did you hum this so it was detected? How many tries did it take? That is incredible it worked thanks for sharing

Why not try testing it for yourself? That way, you'll have a definitive set of results to look at that you can guarantee.

That wouldn't answer the question. Searching a song that you remember from the past is nothing like listening to a song on YouTube and then immediately trying to sing it back to Google.

That's a fair point. Thanks for providing an explanation!

Just once, humming (not particularly well), not singing.

The song in question is sung with a very clear voice, with minimal instrumental backing. That may suggest the limiting factor is Google's ability to parse songs, rather than users' ability to hum them.

Tried it with soundhound [0] (was called midomi when I used it as a flash app many years ago) just for giggles and it found a different version of the same song first try as well.

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.melodis.mi...

From Wikipedia: "The song appears in episode 2 of The Man in the High Castle..."

Aha, so that's where I had heard it before!

Pretty fascinating story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyaki_(song)

Incredible

'The song is best known under the alternative title "Sukiyaki". In Japan it refers to a Japanese hot-pot dish with cooked beef, the word sukiyaki does not appear in the song's lyrics, nor does it have any connection to them'

"Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home from a Japanese student demonstration protesting against a continued US military presence in the country, expressing his frustration at the failed efforts."

"An instrumental version of the song was played by NASA over the radio for the Gemini VII astronauts as mood music, thereby becoming one of the first pieces of music sent to humans in space."

Interesting all around but I found the beef part hilarious

It's a wonderful tune -- I was an instant fan hearing it in the movie Inherent Vice.

Amazing, this was a hit in Hungary when I was little, my mother used to love it.

https://youtu.be/-0mlFNmj-vU

Mary J. Blige's "Everything"[1] has a pretty similar chord progression - I don't recall ever hearing that song, but it immediately felt familia

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZueSZRJrA

Love this song!

Whistle and look up so you can't see these tears..

It managed to be a #1 hit in the US even!

Thanks for introducing me to this!

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