Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: EPO -- Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte（真夜中にベルが2度鳴って）

 

Number: 079

Lyricist: EPO

Composer: Tatsuro Yamashita

Arranger: Tatsuro Yamashita

From EPO's 1981 album: "JOEPO 81 KHz"

A track that didn't make it onto Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）1979 "Moonglow" album, EPO herself added the lyrics to "Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte" (The Phone Rang Twice in the Middle of the Night). It has inherited and infused itself with the pop sense of Sugar Babe（シュガーベイブ）along with EPO's own attractiveness. The drummer here was Yutaka Uehara（上原裕）who had played for Sugar Babe in their later years. If history had changed just a little, perhaps this song would have made it onto a dream second album...would love to have listened to that! 

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Hi, J-Canuck here! Well, in another case of "Oh, goofy me!", I realized that I had never written about "Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte" at all because I had assumed that the song was "Nichiyou wa Bell ga Naru Mae ni"（日曜はベルが鳴る前に）which I did write about. However, it just means that I have a new song by the lovely EPO to hear for the first time.

Kimura mentioned that there is quite a bit of Sugar Babe in the pedigree of this song but I also think that it also reflects Tats' late 1970s solo efforts, too. It's a City Pop tune but this time about, "Mayonaka ni Ni-do Bell Natte" possesses that languid 1960s pop balladry or Beach Boys magic that Yamashita adored when he was a kid. Ironically, the basic rhythm reminds me of a slower form of Petula Clark's "Downtown". If I'm not mistaken, EPO and Sugar Babe had their own "Downtown" sometime earlier as well.😝