The only two non-English language number ones of the 1960s
If music is a universal language, then why should natural language ever be a barrier to the enjoyment of music itself? After all, Stevie Wonder opens his timeless soul masterpiece ‘Sir Duke’ with the line “Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand”, and he isn’t wrong.
Well, he wouldn’t be wrong, except for the fact that when it comes to deciding what reaches the top of the charts in a given country, listeners tend to gravitate towards favouring songs sung in their native tongue as opposed to something that they’ve got to put the effort in to comprehend. While English-language music has a much stronger chance of being able to infiltrate the charts of other countries due to its increased prevalence as a lingua franca, the same can’t always be said when roles are reversed.
A large amount of this is down to the existence of what most would call ‘English arrogance’, whereby those from English-speaking countries are too lazy to learn another language on the basis that the commonplace nature of their own lexicon will carry them through any conversation with a foreigner. Brits and Americans alike frequently fall foul of flaunting this superiority complex, and no matter how many hours they’ve sunk into a Duolingo course, they’ll still revert to English when it’s convenient for them, which is to say, far too often.
At the same time, those who don’t speak English as a first language will often acquire enough of a vocabulary to be able to construct a simple set of lyrics, even if they’re unable to achieve conversational fluency, hence why plenty of overseas stars are able to sneak into the UK and US charts with songs written in English. However, the amount of non-English language songs that manage to hit the top spot is limited by comparison, which begs the question of whether we’re anywhere near as tolerant of foreign-language music as we like to claim we are.
While Spanish and Korean-language songs have been able to find success on the Billboard Hot 100 in modern times, with the likes of K-Pop superstars BTS and Puerto Rican reggaeton titan Bad Bunny topping the charts in recent memory, the same can’t be said for previous decades in US chart history, where it was less commonplace for songs not sung in English to have this level of success.
Throughout the whole of the 1960s, only two non-English language songs made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remarkably enough, they were both released in the same damn year.
What were the only non-English language 1960s number ones?
Hitting the top of the charts in June 1963 for a total of three weeks, Kyu Sakamoto’s worldwide smash hit ‘Sukiyaki’ soared to notoriety through simply being a breath of fresh air. Its luscious brand of orchestral pop helped it to not just top the charts in multiple countries outside of Sakamoto’s home of Japan, but helped it become one of the best-selling singles of all time, achieving over 13 million sales worldwide, and being translated into multiple languages through various cover versions.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, less of an irresistible pop anthem that transcends language barriers and more of a curious novelty is The Singing Nun’s ‘Dominique’, reaching the top of the charts in December 1963 and remaining there for four weeks. The Singing Nun, also known as Sœur Sourire in her home country of Belgium, and born Jeannine Deckers, clearly had an impact with her global hit, but was more of a success due to the absurdity of her status as a French-speaking nun-turned pop star.
Despite the success of these two songs, no other song primarily sung in a language other than English would top the US charts for another 23 years, with Falco’s German-English hit, ‘Rock Me Amadeus’, achieving the feat in 1986. In fact, after The Singing Nun’s success, no other song sung purely in a foreign language was able to enter the Top 40 for 11 years, with Spanish group Mocedades’ Eurovision-winning hit ‘Eres tú’ being the song to break the duck in 1974. While we might consider ourselves fans of music from other cultures, we’re evidently not great at celebrating it when it really matters.
