Marie (folk duo) -- Orange House ni Sayonara（オレンジハウスにさようなら）

 

An orange house somewhere in Japan, eh? Well, I can think of a place with an orange sign and that would be the family restaurant Royal Host.

I was so glad that there was one right by the R&B Hotel where I stayed during my last trip to Japan almost a decade ago. Good for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Well, apparently the orange house in "Orange House ni Sayonara" (Goodbye to the Orange House) was a cafe where a lass and her now erstwhile boyfriend used to frequent during their relationship. Now, she can only sneak a peek outside at her ex with a new girl on her arm in the coffeehouse. 

"Orange House ni Sayonara" was the 2nd single for the folk duo Marie（麻里絵）released in June 1977. From listening to this song whose words and music were provided by up-and-coming singer-songwriter Hiroko Taniyama（谷山浩子）, it's got that rather upbeat chorus accompanied by melancholy verses which I guess could represent the ups and downs of a typical romance life. Not sure if this had been used as a theme for a certain cafe (or family restaurant), although I don't think any commercial establishment would ever appreciate being associated with heartbreak. Heartburn, maybe, but not heartbreak. In any case, I had initially thought about writing on Marie's debut single "Ki ni Naru Anata"（気になるあなた ）, only to find out that I had already posted about it back in 2023.

Marie -- Ki ni Naru Anata（気になるあなた ）

 

I'm in the middle of what I call the Holiday Tunnel, that time of revelry and tourism between Canada Day on July 1st and America's 4th of July. My family had their get-together last night which involved copious amounts of Swiss Chalet and then a carrot cake for dessert. For those living in Eastern Canada, they know that my repast wasn't quite light dining...tasty, mind you.

Well, it's nice then that I can hear something as light and refreshing as Marie's（麻里絵）"Ki ni Naru Anata" which literally means "You That I've Fallen For" but frankly, it sounds better if it were "I've Fallen For You" even if the latter translation targets more of the action rather than the topic of said action. OK, we're kinda getting into heavy stuff here...back to light and refreshing.

By the way, Marie is actually not one woman but a duo consisting of Akemi Furuta（古田明美）and Keiko Yoshikawa（吉川恵子）. They lasted between 1976 and 1979, and their duo name came about thanks to another folk duo Bread & Butter's（ブレッド&バター）song "Marie"（マリエ）according to a July 2008 interview with Furuta and Yoshikawa on a TV Asahi show. The jaunty "Ki ni Naru Anata", which was penned by Takao Onoda（小野田孝雄）, was their first of four singles released in August 1976 and in the previous year, they used this song to get into the 10th Annual Yamaha Popular Song Contest. No prizes there but Marie did win in 1976 with another song "Mou Ichido Anata to"（もう一度あなたと...Once More With You）.

That TV Asahi show also revealed a sweet story in which a woman named Marie（麻里絵）had been given her name after her mother listened to the duo's fourth and final single. The lady named Marie asked whether Furuta and Yoshikawa couldn't make a comeback, and for a short time, Marie the duo was back performing. 

As one final aside, there is another Marie（マリエ）here on the blog but she has no connection with the folk duo. She's been a mystery lady who happened to sing a duet with enka singer Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）for "Duo Shinobi Ai"（デュオしのび逢い）in 1984. I've therefore inserted Furuta and Yoshikawa as "Marie (folk duo)" in Labels.