Yellow Magic Orchestra made its 1980 debut on the legendary American dance show “Soul Train” performing a cover of “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & the Drells, two years after the November 1978 release of the trio’s eponymous first album
Dressed in logoed button-downs with red armbands, conjuring images of Mao Zedong's Red Guards, the three members performed a curiously fresh update of the early funk hit that featured a vocoder, synths and exaggeratedly accented lyrics spoofing Asian stereotypes in the West: "We are YMO! From Tokyo, Japan! We don't sightsee, we dance. You understand?"
Planted in the studio audience of hip, mostly African-American, youth was the group's manager, Yoichi Ito, in boxy glasses and a business suit. With cameras dangling from his neck, he held aloft a paddle that read "Wow." Though he was meant to stand still, a prop for the joke in the song's increasingly desperate refrain ("Japanese gentlemen, stand up, please!"), he got caught up in the dancers, who grooved and cheered him on. The whole thing was joyous.