Kenji Sawada Popular Song Rankings [2026]

From Yamato with lovesawada kenji36rank/position

With Love from Yamato / Kenji Sawada

This was Kenji Sawada’s 24th single, released on August 1, 1978.

It served as the theme song for the hugely popular anime of the time, Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love.

As of 2022, when this article is being written, I imagine many people in their 50s were captivated by this anime.

It featured an unforgettable ending in which the Yamato, battered and barely holding together after enemy attacks, makes a kamikaze run at the enemy’s super-dreadnought to save Earth.

I think I saw this film in theaters when I was in the fourth grade, and that scene still remains vividly in my memory.

Because this song plays as the Yamato self-destructs, it has become a deeply nostalgic piece for me.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Kei Takahata

Report a problem

Alone in Parissawada kenji37rank/position

Kenji Sawada / Alone in Paris (1975)

This is the 13th solo single, released in May 1975.

In January of the same year, a French-language version of the song was released in eight European countries, marking a worldwide debut.

In France, it reached No.

4 on the charts and became a major hit, selling 200,000 copies.

A mellow, romantic mid-tempo ballad.

Fugitive of Lovesawada kenji38rank/position

Kenji Sawada / The Fugitive of Love (1974)

This single, released in 1974 with an eye toward breaking into the global market, features both the A-side “Ai no Tōbōsha” and the B-side “I Was Born to Love You” sung entirely in English.

With its exotic melody, ska rhythm, and shouts of “Woo-ha!,” it comes together as a tricky, playful piece.

I don’t care if I die.sawada kenji39rank/position

Kenji Sawada / I Would Die (I Would Die For Your Love) (1972)

This is Julie’s fourth solo single, following the breakup of The Tigers in 1970 and the short-lived PYG, a new band launched in 1971, which quickly fell apart, leading him to go solo.

It was released in 1972.

It’s a passionate kayō rock ballad with a tear-jerking melody.

Forbidden lovesawada kenji40rank/position

Kenji Sawada - Unforgivable Love

Released in 1972 as Kenji Sawada’s second single, this song became his first to enter the Oricon Top 10.

It won the Vocal Performance Award at the 14th Japan Record Awards and the Excellence Award at the 5th Japan Cable Awards, and it marked his first appearance on NHK’s Kōhaku Uta Gassen.

AMAPOLAsawada kenji41rank/position

AMAPOLA by Kenji Sawada

43rd single.

The original song is known as a standard number, and this cover used the version featured in the 1984 American film ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ as an image song for its Japanese release.

It was Sawada’s first cover as an A-side track and was also used in a Shiseido commercial.

Despite marking a 180-degree shift from his previous rock-oriented style and generating buzz, sales were sluggish, and it ultimately became his final single released under Polydor.

Mon amour je viens du bout du mondesawada kenji42rank/position

Kenji Sawada Mon amour, I come from the end of the world

The original song of “Hitori in Paris,” which was released in France in January 1975.

It climbed to No.

4 on the radio charts and sold 200,000 records, becoming an unusually big hit for a foreign-language song in France.

It was later released in various European countries and Canada as well.

Incidentally, it’s said that Kenji Sawada doesn’t speak any French at all.