“Just Throw It Away!” The One Note Kim Kwang-seok Refused to Fix

Part 9 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 8, “On the Street,” is still alive because of one opening line that Kim Kwang-seok kept stretching out even as the songwriter shouted at him in the studio to “just throw it away!” That stubbornness became the Kim Kwang-seok style that younger singers copy today.

Kim Kwang-seok – “On the Street” (Official Audio, 2022 Remastered) — 550,000 views

Its combined views come to about 34.9 million. It is a different song from Sung Si-kyung’s song of the same title. I love the moment that first long “On the street…” rolls out. Everything about Kim Kwang-seok, his stubbornness and his tenderness, is in that one line.

It started with a friends’ cassette tape

“On the Street” isn’t a Kim solo song. It belongs to Dongmulwon, the band he made with college friends. Kim and the friends he hung out with in Sinchon made a cassette tape as a keepsake, and Kim Chang-wan of the rock band Sanullim heard it and told them to make a real album (Munhwa Ilbo, June 1, 2026; Money S, Jan. 6, 2025). The best-loved song on that first album, released in January 1988, was “On the Street,” written by Kim Chang-ki and sung by Kim (Melon; Busan Ilbo, July 1, 2015). When newspapers reported his death in 1996, they introduced him as “the popular singer who made ‘My Song’ and ‘On the Street’ hits” (Chosun Ilbo, Jan. 6, 2026, quoting a Jan. 7, 1996 report).

왠지 모든 것이 꿈결 같아요

Somehow everything feels like a dream.

— Lyrics and music by Kim Chang-ki (1988), excerpt

On a street where the lamps come on one by one and the day goes down behind a dark red sunset, he sees his own face reflected in a shop window. She left for somewhere far away as if nothing had happened, and the love they shared is fading in slow time. He turns up his collar and tries to smile, but he keeps looking back, as if he might still see her walking away.

Also read: He Lost His Brother to the Army. Then He Sang Korea's Enlistment Song.

“Georie, throw it!”

Kim Chang-ki wanted the opening sung short and clipped, almost tossed off. Dongmulwon member Park Ki-young remembers the first-album sessions this way: “Kim Chang-ki kept saying, ‘Georie, throw it! Please, just throw it away,’ but he just couldn’t do it.” Kim Chang-ki even pulled him out to the stairwell to talk him into it, but Kim kept drawing out “Georie-e-e” (“On the street”) (SBS D-Report, Jan. 7, 2026).

The stubbornness didn’t stop at one song. Han Dong-jun, who wrote “Love Has Gone,” and Kang Seung-won, who wrote “About Thirty,” also complained about the way he sang. But Lee Se-jun of the duo Yurisangja, standing on the same stage thirty years later, comes to the opposite conclusion. “If he’d sung ‘Georie‘ instead of ‘Georie-e-e,’ it would’ve been a really ordinary song” (SBS D-Report). The habit the songwriters tried to fix is now the textbook younger singers learn from.

The band he left, the song that holds him

Kim stayed with Dongmulwon through its second album and then went his own way. He wanted to sing full-time, and his friends wanted to keep jobs and make music on the side (Korea Economic Daily, Aug. 26, 2025). Those friends still perform as a three-piece Dongmulwon, and Again, Dongmulwon, a musical about the band, marked its 10th anniversary in 2025. Asked which number he likes best, founding member and music director Park Ki-young answered, “‘On the Street,’ the way Kwang-seok hyung sang it” (Korea Economic Daily, Aug. 26, 2025).

Yoon Do-hyun’s shout, a French “On the Street”

Every singer turns this song into a different street. Yoon Do-hyun turned it into a rock song and belted it on SBS’s God’s Voice (3.26 million views). On Olive’s Pocha Without Borders, a French singer sang it in French (2.57 million). Two months ago, Lim Young-woong sang it on an SBS variety show at actor Cha Seung-won’s request and passed 1.83 million.

Yoon Do-hyun – “On the Street” (God’s Voice, SBS) — 3.26 million views

“On the Street” in French (Pocha Without Borders, Olive) — 2.57 million views

Hong Isaac – “On the Street” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS) — 550,000 views

Baek A-yeon, from JYP Entertainment, sang it on the Kim Kwang-seok episode of KBS’s Immortal Songs in 2017 (85,000 views).

Baek A-yeon – “On the Street” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2017) — 85,000 views

Super Junior’s Kyuhyun sang it on MBC’s Radio Star.

Kyuhyun (Super Junior) – “On the Street” (Radio Star, MBC) — 33,000 views

The songwriter told him to throw the line away, and Kim held on to it. Thirty-eight years later, nobody who sings this song throws away the opening line. As a fan, I just want to thank him for holding on to it.

Previous: Part 8 — His Brightest Song Hides His Saddest Line

Next, No. 7: “Those Days,” another Kim Chang-ki song, which became a musical about saying sorry for not protecting someone.

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Sources: Munhwa Ilbo (June 1, 2026); Money S (Jan. 6, 2025); Melon (Dongmulwon 1, Jan. 15, 1988, lyrics and music by Kim Chang-ki); Busan Ilbo (July 1, 2015); Chosun Ilbo (Jan. 6, 2026, quoting a Jan. 7, 1996 report); SBS D-Report (Jan. 7, 2026); Korea Economic Daily (Aug. 26, 2025). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.