Tokyo Melody by Helmut Zacharias

Album: Tokyo Melody (1964)

Charted: 9

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Songfacts®:

In 1964, when the BBC covered the Olympic Games extensively, it used a new composition by the German composer Helmut Zacharias (1920-2002) to introduce the relevant programs. Although "Tokyo Melody" does not have any words as such, it does contain some excellent vocal harmonies which give the music a distinctly Japanese flavor, though curiously the five note octave based theme is brass and horn rather than string dominated, as one might have expected from the man once dubbed "the best jazz violinist in the world."
Backed by "Teatime In Tokyo", the theme song was released in both the UK and his native Germany by Helmut Zacharias & His Orchestra on the Polydor label.

According to David Ades of The Robert Farnon Society, it sold over 13 million copies worldwide - likely a very inflated number. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

Comments: 1

Brian from LondonWhat is the evidence for this record selling 13 million copies ? If it did it would be one of the biggest selling records of the 1960s, outselling other instrumentals like Telstar and anything by The Beatles. It does not appear in the definitive million selling records books of Joseph Murrells,
so just how and where did it apparently sell so many ? Has it been certified by the R.I.A.A. ?
For the record, words were added and vocal version entitled Good Morning Tokyo was issued by the actress/singer Tsai Chin.

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