Pink Lady -- Kon'ya wa Lonely（今夜はLONELY）

Well, here I was...thinking that legendary high-stepping aidoru duo Pink Lady（ピンク・レディー）was ready to call it a day (or half-decade) when the 80s arrived. I had figured that perhaps at least either Mie or Kei were going to re-enter show business as a solo singer (which both did) or as variety show-occupying tarento.

Little did I know then that Mie and Kei got the duo back together in the 1980s via their 1984 album "Suspense ~ Pink Lady Again". But neither Yu Aku（阿久悠）nor Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, their prolific songwriters for their hits back in the 1970s would accompany the ladies this time around, and it looks like that their dancing days were over. Instead, it sounds like their comeback album, according to the first track, would take on a more City Pop sheen with the arrangement handled by guitarist and City Pop veteran Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）. Even the cover for "Suspense" has Pink Lady looking less like the go-go booted and spangled cheerleaders of yesteryear and more like well-to-do party-goers ready to paint the town red.

It definitely sounds that way with that first track, "Kon'ya wa Lonely" (Lonely Tonight) which was written by Hiromi Mori（森浩美）and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）. And yet, the song sounds so Matsushita, but with the familiar voices of Pink Lady behind the microphone instead. Frankly, I had been skeptical about a Pink Lady-fronted pop album of the 1980s, but so far, "Kon'ya wa Lonely" isn't too bad at all. All I wonder is how Mie and Kei would have choreographed the tune.