Ruiko Kurahashi -- Yume no Tochuu（夢の途中）

I don't know where or when exactly I first heard Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）splendid cover of Takao Kisugi's（来生たかお）"Yume no Tochuu" (In The Middle of a Dream) which was also Hiroko Yakushimaru's（薬師丸ひろ子）"Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu"（セーラー服と機関銃）in the early 1980s. However, I figure that it could have been Tower Records or HMV in Shibuya since they have the various listening posts.

Doesn't really matter. Kurahashi's version of "Yume no Tochuu" has got that added delight of her vocals and bossa nova in the arrangement which makes for a nice contrast with Kisugi's straight-ahead pop take and Yakushimaru's two different versions, one of which had the more dramatic urban contemporary melody line to match her 1981 breakthrough role in the movie "Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu".

Although as YouTube uploader Danillo Freire has mentioned, it's available on her "Golden Best" album (which seems to be sold out at CD Japan at least), "Yume no Tochuu" was originally a track on her own tribute LP to the works of Takao Kisugi, "THANKS ~ Kisugi Takao O-Sakuhinshuu"（来生たかおお作品集...The Takao Kisugi Collection）released in December 1983. I actually saw that album sold at the old/used music shop RecoFan in Shibuya, but alas at the time, I didn't think that I would ever see a record player again let alone actually purchase one in the mid-2010s. My loss.😞