Southern All Stars (サザンオールスターズ, Sazan Ōrusutaazu?), also known by the abbreviations Sazan (サザン?) and SAS, is a Japanese pop rock band that formed in the mid 1970s.
The band is composed of Keisuke Kuwata (lead vocals and guitars), Yuko Hara (vocals and keyboards), Kazuyuki Sekiguchi (bass), Hiroshi Matsuda (drums) and Hideyuki "Kegani" Nozawa (custom percussion). In addition to the present lineup, former guitarist Takashi Omori had worked in the band until 2001.
After the contract with Victor Entertainment, the band released their top-ten charting debut single "Katte ni Sindbad" in 1977. Since then, Southern has been one of the best-selling music groups in the past 30 years of Japan, selling more than 47 million albums and singles in Japan alone. They have had over 40 top-ten hit singles and 16 number-one albums on the Japan's Oricon Charts as of 2008.
Their 1998 compilation Umi no Yeah!! has sold more than 3.3 million copies and became the best-selling double album in Japanese history. Their most commercially successful song "Tsunami", released in 2000, has sold over 2.9 million units in Japan alone, and provided the band with honor of winning the 42nd Japan Record Awards. The band were also acclaimed and ranked number one in HMV Japan's 2003 list of "100 most influential Japanese musicians". They are also the only group to ever have 44 songs on the Oricon Top 100 weekly single chart simultaneously.
The band has occasionally gone into hiatus while individual members work on solo and other projects, and are planning to do so again in 2009.
Famous quotes containing the words southern and/or stars:
“As it grew darker, I was startled by the honking of geese flying low over the woods, like weary travellers getting in late from Southern lakes, and indulging at last in unrestrained complaint and mutual consolation. Standing at my door, I could hear the rush of their wings; when, driving toward my house, they suddenly spied my light, and with hushed clamor wheeled and settled in the pond. So I came in, and shut the door, and passed my first spring night in the woods.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“With a tongue like a razor he will kiss,
the mother, the child,
and we three will color the stars black
in memory of his mother
who kept him chained to the food tree
or turned him on and off like a water faucet....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)