Yuko Nakazawa (中澤 裕子, Nakazawa Yūko, born June 19, 1973 in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese pop and enka singer, and actress, best known as one of the original members of the all-female J-pop group Morning Musume. She is also a member of Japanese pop group Dream Morning Musume.
Yuko Nakazawa was one of five runners-up in a 1997 talent contest for a new Japanese rock idol. After the contest, musician and producer Tsunku offered Nakazawa and the four other runners-up (Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Aya Ishiguro, and Asuka Fukuda) the chance to be taken under his wing under one condition: they must sell 50,000 CDs of their debut song "Ai no Tane" with five days of live promotion. The quintet accomplished that task in four and thus Morning Musume was born. The group has since grown increasingly popular and is infamous for its fluctuating lineup, with members leaving and joining frequently.
In 1998, shortly after Morning Musume's formation, Nakazawa began a solo career, beginning with enka styled songs. She gradually moved to a more pop sound, but has recently gone back to enka with her eleventh single, "Urara." Her solo work has allowed her voice to shine in a way it rarely did in Morning Musume, as she mostly sung harmonies with only a few solo lines.
There are many different people,
Livin' double lives.
One for the office,
And one that they take home to their wives.
He sits in the armchair, watching channel 4,
With his brains not expected home for an hour or more.
He's still drifting to and fro, like a yo-yo.
His wife is in the kitchen, fixin' her old man's tea
She's thinking to herself,
"He's not the man that married me, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."
They used to laugh together, now he's never at home.
Now she's fighting back the tears, she can't even laugh alone.
She's just sitting by the telephone, like a yo-yo.
You needed me when you were crying,
But now you're laughing I'm the last thing on your mind.
First you love me, then you don't.
I'm up and down,
Like a yo-yo.
Yo-yo.
Ah, you thought you knew me pretty well,
But with people like me you never can tell.
You can only guess which way I'll go.
You got me sussed, but you don't know,
I'm a yo-yo.
Just like a yo-yo on a string.
I'm a yo-yo.
Little child playing with a yo-yo.
Yo-yo, yo-yo.
Girl you had me dangling, like a yo-yo on a string,
But with you at the controls I could accomplish anything, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You were just playing, I was a little boy,
But when I grew into a man you just threw away your toy,
Like a yo-yo.
Yo-yo.
You might be popular, but it won't last for long,
So don't give up the day job, in case it all goes wrong.
Look at your ego, watch it go, up and down,
Like a yo-yo.
Yo-yo.
You needed me when you were crying,
But now you're laughing I'm the last thing on your mind.
First you love me, then you don't.
I'm up and down,
Like a yo-yo.
Yo-yo.
I'm a yo-yo (yo-yo).