Mieko Hirota -- Ai no Nokori ga（愛のNOKORIGA）

 

It's been about a couple of years since singer Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）passed away and during her time, she was known as the Queen of Pops. From the 1960s onwards, she was one of the kayo stalwarts with one of her standard-bearers being the 1969 "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）.

But her discography extended into the first half of the 1980s, too, with four singles and two albums coming out. For instance, her 38th single from March 1983 is "Ai no Nokori ga" (Remains of Love) which is a swinging combination of some old-style jazz and the new City Pop. It rather feels like going out on that high-flying and high-paying night out in Shinjuku, Akasaka and Ginza.

We can thank Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the same fellow behind the famous "Lupin III" theme song, for all that jazz in "Ai no Nokori ga" while singer-lyricist Mebae Miyahara（宮原芽映）under her pen name of Yu Chino（茅野遊）took care of the words.  "Ai no Nokori ga" can also be found on Hirota's album "Touch of Breeze" which came out on the same day as the single.