Mariko Takahashi/Ami Ozaki -- Anata no Sora wo Tobitai (あなたの空を翔びたい）

1978 was a good year for singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. She not only helped launch 17-year-old Anri's（杏里） career by whipping up "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら）, but she also helped folk-pop singer Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子） start her solo career with this romantic ballad, "Anata no Sora wo Tobitai"(I Want to Soar in Your Sky). This was Takahashi's first single, released in November (just 20 days after Anri's debut first hit the record shelves) since she broke away from her band, "Pedro & Capricious". It also became the first track on her debut album released in early 1979, "Hitoaruki" (ひとあるき....Walking Alone).

"Anata no Sora wo Tobitai" is a template of sorts for the Takahashi ballad: lush orchestration with shimmering strings as she starts out softly before she belts out the refrain as a powerful declaration.

Several years later, Ozaki covered this very song in an album of self-covers called "Super Points". Her own rendition has a bit more melancholy in it than Takahashi's anthemic version, and the ending hints at a somewhat uncertain future.