Misak, "King of Pop-Song Adapters", dies at 74
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Misak Nakarat, who gained fame as a singer, actor and adapter of foreign songs in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, died of lung cancer at the age of 74 yesterday morning.
A funeral bathing ceremony was held at Wat Samian Nari.
Misak rose to fame with a style that was new to many at the time. He came up with humorous songs, co-writing the comical Thai lyrics with music master Suraphol Donavanik, and substituted them for the English lyrics of foreign songs. These included “Daed Ok”, from Harry Belafonte’s traditional Jamaican folk song “Day-O”; “Fon Tok” from The Diamonds’ “Little Darlin’”; “Hao Dong” from Elvis Presley’s “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck”; “Arai Ja Kha Nai Nat” from The Coasters’ “Poison Ivy”; and a version of the Japanese song “Sukiyaki”. His popularity saw Misak praised as the king of music adapters.
In the late 1960s, Misak joined “luk krung” vocalist Thanongsak Phakdethewa, who died in 2007, and Thai Elvis Presley impersonator Sakkarin Punyarit who was gone in mid-2000sto form the Sam Sak Band. The band name derives from the fact that each of their names contains “sak”. The band became very popular and was a three-time recipient of the Royal Golden LP Award, for “Meow Thai”, a song about Thai cats; “Klai Khao Ma Laew” and “Rai Arom”.
GMM Grammy released solo albums by Misak from 1977 to 1987.
Misak did voice-overs for movie trailers and commercials and acted in many films such as “Hao Dong” (1958), “4 Kings” (1959), “Sing Thao” (1960), “Ngern Ngern Ngern” (1965), “Thorachon Khon Suay” (1967), “Ped Noi” (1968), “Phaya Sok” (1970) and “Rak Sayam Thao Fah” (2008). He worked as a TV director in the early years of Channel 3 and co-hosted with Suda Chuenban a music programme, “Music Square”, in 1977. He also worked as a DJ playing Thai classic oldies in 1987.
