Yoko Maeno -- Yoru wa Hitoribocchi（夜はひとりぼっち）

 

The last time I wrote about Yoko Maeno（前野曜子）, the first vocalist for the band Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ&カプリシャス）, was back in late 2019 when the song of note was the 1982 City Pop cover version of Grover Washington Jr.'s "Winelight". Cool track, that.

This time, we take things back in Maeno's discography by nearly a decade to September 1973 when she released her 2nd single as a solo artist, "Yoru wa Hitoribocchi" (The Night Alone). With those dramatic horns, a thundering timpani and a wacka-wacka rock guitar, my first thought that this song just had to have been the theme for some police show on Japanese television. However, there is no indication so far that "Yoru wa Hitoribocchi" ever graced any sort of TV program.

Despite all of the melodic equivalent of a cop takedown in the streets of Tokyo, Maeno keeps her vocals rather soft and slightly raspy until she lets them soar at key points in "Yoru wa Hitoribocchi". In a way, I'd say that she is unleashing her inner Shirley Bassey. The lyrics were created by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and the music was by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）. Meanwhile, the arrangement was by jazz pianist and composer-arranger Norio Maeda（前田憲男）.