Song · Graham Parker
“Discovering Japan” by Graham Parker
Released 1993
“Discovering Japan” by Graham Parker appears on 7 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1999 and 2005. It was first released in 1993. Its best result is #378 on the CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,665 alternative song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (Graham Parker & The Rumour - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Discovering Japan" sits on Squeezing Out Sparks, the 1979 album Graham Parker cut with his backing band the Rumour, and it's a souvenir of a tour that took them to Japan and Australia. Parker was getting far more attention in Japan than in his native UK, and over there he and the band were counted among the vanguard of new wave. He flew home feeling he'd been somewhere about as strange as another planet, and the song turned that culture shock into something more intricate than the plain, direct approach of some of his earlier records.
It went out as a UK single in 1979 and didn't chart, which hasn't stopped it from becoming one of the best-known songs he has.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 378 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 378 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 383 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 383 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 383 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 383 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 385 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
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