The Kim Sisters

Over the past decade K-Pop groups have seen a good deal of success in the United States, particularly BTS. That having been said, Korean singers found their way to the US well before the 21st Century. The Kim Sisters were three Korean sisters (Kim Sook-ja, Kim Ai-ja, and Kim Min-ja) who landed a recording contact in the United States and appeared on such shows as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show.

Music ran in the Kim Sisters' family. Their father was conductor Kim Hae-song while their mother was Lee Nan-young, a popular singer in Korea prior to the Korean War. Unfortunately, Kim Hae-song would be captured and executed by North Korea in 1950. Afterwards Lee Nan-young adopted Min-ja and then formed a singing group consisting of the three girls. She would buy American records on the black market so her daughters could learn to sing them. The Kim Sisters would perform for American soldiers in bars and nightclubs, and they proved to be popular with the American military. Their fame in Korea among Americans spread to the point that producer Tom Ball signed them.

It would take a year following Tom Ball having signed the Kim Sisters for them to arrive in the United States. Their first performances in the US were in Las Vegas at the Thunderbird Hotel as part of Thomas Ball's "China Doll Revue." Once their contract with the Thunderbird Hotel ended, the Kim Sisters began performing at the Stardust.

The Kim Sisters made their American television debut on The Dinah Shore Show on June 7 1959. Later in that September they made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Ed Sullivan obviously liked The Kim Sisters, as they would appear on his show twenty times. Their last appearance on the show was in 1967. The Kim Sisters also released albums and several singles in the United States. While most of their singles saw little action on the American charts, in 1962 their cover of The Coasters' song "Charlie Brown" peaked at no. 7 on the Billboard singles chart, making it the first hit by Korean artists in American history.

While the Kim Sisters might not have seen a good deal of success as recording artists, they were highly successful as stage performers. They appeared on such shows as The Dean Martin Show, The Hollywood Palace, Operation: Entertainment, The Joey Bishop Show, Della, The Barbara McNair Show and The Merv Griffin Show. They even played themselves in an episode of Ensign O'Toole. They also continued to perform on the Las Vegas Strip until 1967,when Min-ja got married. The remaining Kim Sisters would afterwards perform with their brothers well into the 1990s.

Much of the popularity of the Kim Sisters in the Sixties might have been due to the fact that they were not only singers, but could play multiple instruments as well. In their television appearances they played everything from saxophone to bass guitar to banjo. Between them, the Kim Sisters could play over twenty different insturments.

The Kim Sisters would be one of Americans' first introductions to Korean culture. It was not unusual for them to play the traditional Korean instrument, gaya-geum, or for them to dress in hanbok. An argument can even be made that they paved the way for modern day K-Pop groups. At the very least, they proved a Korean group could have success in the US.