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Creating a soft rock sound so mellow as to make <a href="spotify:artist:1eEfMU2AhEo7XnKgL7c304">the Carpenters</a> sound heavy, the husband and wife duo of Le Couple has been releasing music since 1994 and surprisingly, for a Japanese group, never got into the business until their early thirties. In the late '80s, Ryuuji Fujita and Emi Fujita were making their way as a young couple in Tokyo. Ryuuji had his dreams of being a professional musician and with Emi ran a small "live house" (a bar with live music), where he would occasionally play with pick-up bands when he wasn't serving. Being without a band for a while, he asked his wife to sing and the duo was born. Their initial repertoire consisted of covers of Western '60s and '70s pop hits (think <a href="spotify:artist:6waa8mKu91GjzD4NlONlNJ">the Hollies</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0vn7UBvSQECKJm2817Yf1P">James Taylor</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4QmkLL9JOqM9dusHS1Hghe">the Searchers</a>). They began to play around the city and were scouted one night when playing in Harajuku. The decision was made to promote the two as a "husband and wife duo," and upon the release of their first album, Hide & Seek, they toured Japan in a station wagon, promoting themselves in the most grassroots way possible. Ryuuji went back to songwriting and Emi wrote the lyrics. Building a small following, the two got a big break in 1997 when their song "Hidamari no toki" was chosen as the theme song to the drama Shinryo Naika-i Ryoko. The single stayed on the charts for 11 months and sold nearly 1.5 million copies. On the Sofa, a follow-up mini-album, was produced by Tore Johansson. Five albums and one best-of later and the group went on hiatus in 2000. ~ Ted Mills, Rovi
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