FUKANO, EDDY

Homebase: Bothell, WA.
Stats: 12.6.38 -- 6.8.18
Misc Notes: Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Eddy Fukano played guitar and sang American-style country/western music with his band, The Ramblers. It was in 1967 that he crossed paths with Billy Vaughn -- the one-time pianist and singer with the Hilltoppers '50s pop quartet, then the Music Director for Dot Records, and also the leader of his own orchestra which scored 42 hits on Billboard Magazine's charts. Vaughan recruited Fukano -- who was already known as "The Country Music King of Tokyo" -- to America where he recorded three singles around 1968 -- "It's Lonesome" / "I Didn't See The Sign (Dot 45-170167), "Columbus Stockade Blues" / "If Tomorrow Could Be Yesterday" (Dot 17165), and  and "Conscience" / "To Get Me Off Your Mind" (Dot 45-17251) and the Eastside, West album. Fukano went on to tour the states widely -- including gigs along with Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, and appeared  on the Hee-Haw TV show in 1969. That same year he recorded "Sukiyaki (My First Lonely Night Without You)" / "Not Counting Mine" for Vancouver, Washington's Portland Records LTD  label, and by 1970 he'd settled in the Northwest, buying a home in Bothell.

[See Fukano's Hee-Haw performance of "Columbus Stockade Blues" here -- one that includes the Buckaroos' guitarist/fiddler, Don Rich.]

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