My Name Is Sue, And I'm A Singer

As mentioned in the last post, I have been veering towards music that I know and love over the past few weeks as an audio comfort blanket. One of my favourite (and definitely cheesiest) album that I often revisit is by Aneka of Japanese Boy fame.

Aneka (real name Mary Sandeman) was a Scottish folk singer who sang in Gaelic with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. More as an expirement, she recorded a pop album, as detailed in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh:

"Japanese Boy was a complete accident. I'd been working with Mary on some Scottish folk albums, when she said to me she'd love to have a bash at some Pop songs. Now keep in mind that she was almost six feet tall, spoke in a frightfully posh voice and was the respectable wife of a small town GP with two children.

I never thought in a million years that she had a chance of making it in the Pop world. Anyway, she kept pestering me and I kept forgetting to write something for her, until one day she called me to say that the studio had been booked to record a song that I hadn't written yet. To cut a long story short I wrote the chorus, and I threw the whole thing together by taking bits from other songs that I had written years before. It was recorded as a demo, and was turned down by every major company.

Then the German company took it on and it went straight into the charts, and eventually #1 all over the world. There was a massive panic as to what to about her image. Then someone came up with the wig and kimono. A complete transformation."

Sandeman found the name "Aneka" by looking through the Edinburgh phone book - the name she found was actually "Anika," but she changed it to avoid upsetting person she took it from.

The album Japanese Boy is a treasure trove of guilty pleasures bringing to mind the sounds of Kate Bush, Olivia Newton John with a sprinkling of italo disco. Whilst it’s never going to make it to anyone’s top ten list, it brings back memories of my childhood that make me grin everytime I listen to the album. Sadly, the album has since been deleted, so I’ve posted the entire LP for your listening pleasure.

MP3: Aneka – Oh Shooby Doo Doo Lang (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Tuwhit Tuwhoo (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Japanese Boy (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Put Out The Light (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Come Back To Me (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Ahriman (expired)
MP3: Aneka – It´ll Be Alright (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Be My Only Karma (expired)
MP3: Aneka – I Was Free (expired)
MP3: Aneka – Little Lad (expired)

Album: Aneka - Japanese Boy (Album)