Junko Sakurada -- Party's Over（パーティー・イズ・オーバー）

As Elton John once sang "Sad songs say so much".

Several years before that hit came out, there was Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）"Party's Over", her 28th single from August 1979, and yep, I wouldn't say that it was even bittersweet although the music tries to keep things light. It's just plain sad as Sakurada sings about a woman who put on her best black dress to get that dance with the guy she had feelings for. But alas, we all know about best-laid plans, don't we? The night's over, the party staff is putting away the empty champagne bottles and the poor lass is still hanging about while everyone's headed home. Sakurada even sounds a bit shaky as she's singing this as if the frustration and drunkenness is being relayed through her own mouth. The only thing worse that could happen is if an annoyed staffer started turning the lights off and on to pester her to get out. But to make her feel better, no one less than a superhero had been in the same boat, but last year, we all found out that everything worked out in the end.

Words and music were provided by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）, and according to the J-Wiki article on "Party's Over", this was her first creation to be released as a single for any singer. The music here is appropriately sad and wistful. Plus, it's also quite innocent and more sophisticated with those strings to hint at the high-class nature of the soiree. Geez, it's too bad about the romance, but I hope the food and drink were worth it.

"Party's Over" peaked at No. 51 and was also the title track on her 12th album from September in the same year. As for songwriter Ito, she's already got a few songs represented on the blog including her contribution to Anri's（杏里）"Cotton Kibun"（コットン気分）. She had debuted in 1972 as one-half of a folk group called Ryu + 1（龍+１）, later to be renamed Ryu to Kaoru（竜とかおる...Ryu and Kaoru）. Following the breakup, she continued her career as a guitarist in backing bands and also for creating commercial jingles.