10 Times Fake Accents Topped the UK Charts

A Scottish folk singer put on a kimono and topped the UK charts. That was 1981, and she never used that voice again after the hit faded. An American-Australian guy with a fake Italian accent knocked John Lennon off the number one spot. UK chart history is full of singers who ditched their real voice and tried on someone else's. These are ten times a vocal costume became a commercial shortcut.

Number 10: George Ezra — "Budapest"

George Ezra was born in Hertfordshire in 1993, and he talks like any other English guy from the Home Counties. But when he opens his mouth to sing, you get this deep chest-voice boom that sounds like it belongs to a sixty-year-old bluesman from the Mississippi Delta.

The Hollywood Reporter called it Americana-fed Brit-folk mixed with soul-man stirrings. You can't exactly call it a fake accent. It's more like a fake vocal age and geography. He was only twenty when he recorded that voice.

"Budapest" reached number three in 2014, and later he climbed to the top spot with "Shotgun." Ezra's just borrowing a tone. Some singers borrowed an entire nationality.

Number 9: Yello — "Oh Yeah"

Yello are a Swiss electronic duo, Dieter Meier and Boris Blank, and they've been at it since 1979. "Oh Yeah" is basically a pitched-down, exaggerated deep baritone that became the voice of 1980s American excess.

You know it from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and then every movie ad for the next decade tried to copy that same sound. It reached number seven in the UK on its re-release in 1987.

What's wild is that two guys from Zurich created the definitive sound of American macho greed. Yello built a robot voice. Other artists just pretended to be from somewhere else entirely.

Number 8: Sheena Easton — "9 to 5"

Sheena Easton is Scottish, from right around Glasgow, and you can hear it when she talks. She popped up on a reality show called The Big Time: Pop Singer back in 1980.

But when she sang "9 to 5," later renamed "Morning Train" for the American market, that Scottish accent just disappeared. The vowels got softer, and what came out was pure transatlantic pop radio voice.

It reached number three in the UK in 1980, and then it hit number one in the US a year later. Her label wanted global radio play, so they sanded off the edges. Easton smoothed out her accent. The Vapors did the opposite and added an entire cultural concept.

Number 7: The Vapors — "Turning Japanese"

These guys were an English new wave band from Surrey, and "Turning Japanese" came out in January 1980 as their debut single. Songwriter David Fenton explained the track was about all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn't expect to.

It peaked at number three in the UK, and it went to number one in Australia. The title and that staccato delivery feel like a Western stereotype of Japanese pop, but the band never claimed it was about a real accent.

Still, the song's whole identity trades on that borrowed concept. The Vapors hinted at Japanese music. Baccara just showed up Spanish and let the UK deal with it.

Number 6: Baccara — "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"

Baccara were two Spanish flamenco dancers, Mayte Mateos and María Mendiola, and they topped the UK chart in October 1977. "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" sold sixteen million copies worldwide, which is absurd for a disco track with that heavy Spanish pronunciation.

Their accents came direct from Spain, not fake at all, but they leaned into them hard as the exotic disco hook. That heavy phonetic delivery was the selling point.

Yes sir, I can boogie, but I need a certain song. You know how it goes. Scottish football fans later adopted it as an anthem.

Baccara were actually Spanish. But this next artist wasn't even close to Japanese.

Number 5: Rick Astley — "Never Gonna Give You Up"

Coming in at number five, Rick Astley is from Newton-Le-Willows in Lancashire, and if you hear him speak, it's pure Northern English. But on "Never Gonna Give You Up," which hit number one in 1987, that voice is deep American soul baritone.

Mike Stock from Stock Aitken Waterman explained they deliberately aimed for that syncopated bassline like Colonel Abrams' "Trapped," that American club sound. Astley's vocal turned into the ingredient that made it not sound like Kylie or Bananarama. That deep baritone was the factory's secret weapon.

The accent wasn't exactly fake, but it was manufactured for the production line. Astley's voice was factory-built. Carl Douglas just saw a martial arts movie and went for it.

Number 4: Carl Douglas — "Kung Fu Fighting"

Carl Douglas was Jamaican-born, British-raised, and in 1974 he released "Kung Fu Fighting." Biddu produced it, he was British-Indian, and the whole thing capitalised on the martial arts craze that was sweeping Britain after Enter the Dragon came out.

It hit number one, and it ended up as one of the decade's biggest novelty hits.

The song isn't literally sung in a Chinese accent, but the whole track borrows Asian musical ideas left and right. There's that chopstick piano riff, and those exaggerated backing chants. Douglas was Jamaican-British singing about Chinese culture over Indian-British production.

Douglas rode a movie craze. Renée and Renato rode Christmas sentimentality straight to number one.

Number 3: Renée and Renato — "Save Your Love"

Renato Pagliari was Italian-born, living in the West Midlands, and he auditioned for ITV's New Faces back in 1975. Songwriter Johnny Edward saw him and wrote "Save Your Love," then teamed him up with an English singer named Hilary Lester, who performed as Renée.

The duo played up the Latin Lover operatic crooner persona, big vibrato, thick accent, dramatic gestures. Renato's accent came straight from Italy, but the persona was turned up to eleven for maximum kitsch.

It took the Christmas number one spot on the 18th of December 1982, and it stayed there for four weeks. That's a month at the top for a guy basically doing an exaggerated version of himself. Renato was at least Italian. The next singer had never been anywhere near Japan.

Number 2: Aneka — "Japanese Boy"

At number two, Mary Sandeman was from Edinburgh, born in 1947, and she won a Gold Medal at The Mòd, Scotland's biggest traditional music competition. Then in 1981 she put on a kimono, changed her name to Aneka, and topped the UK charts with "Japanese Boy."

She wore the costume on Top of the Pops and everywhere else. After the hit faded, she dropped the Aneka name completely and went back to Scottish folk roots.

She later admitted the kimono and the lyrics followed her around for years. You couldn't make that up. A traditional Scottish folk singer one year, a Japanese synth-pop star the next.

Aneka was a folk singer playing dress-up. But number one on this list is the most blatant vocal costume in UK chart history.

Number 1: Joe Dolce Music Theatre — "Shaddap You Face"

And at number one, Joe Dolce was an American-Australian singer-songwriter, and he released "Shaddap You Face" in late 1980. It hit number one on the 15th of February 1981, and it stayed there for three weeks.

The whole song is a novelty track about a rebellious Italian boy, and the accent is the entire hook. Without that exaggerated Italian-American voice, there's no character, no comedy, no song.

Millions of copies sold worldwide, and it knocked a posthumous John Lennon single off the top of the chart. The accent was so over-the-top that radio stations played it as a joke, and then it wouldn't go away. No other fake voice ever paid off this hard on the UK charts.

The British record-buying public loves a good vocal costume.

Conclusion

Some of these were fake accents, some were real accents dialed up to eleven, and some were entire manufactured personas. If you only remember one, make it Mary Sandeman, because a Gold Medal Scottish folk singer becoming a Japanese pop star is something that could...