Naomi Sugimura -- Kaze no Naka no Melody（風の中のメロディー）

Remembering Naomi Sugimura's（杉村尚美）"Sunset Memory"（サンセット・メモリー）, her first solo single in 1981 following the breakup of her folk group Higurashi（日暮し）, that song was a pretty jaunty kayo.

Sugimura's 3rd and final single released in June 1982 was "Kaze no Naka no Melody" (Melody in the Wind) is much more of an epic ballad with memories of some of the Carpenters' greatest love songs and some of those belonging to folks like Boz Scaggs. With those strings in there, I can only imagine that the protagonist must have gone through some major obstacles to finally reach her measure of contentment.

"Kaze no Naka no Melody" was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Yayoi Tanaka（田中弥生）, and it was actually the theme song for a 1982 NTV drama called "Akkerakan"（あっけらかん...Indifference）about a newly-divorced nurse who still has to take care of her two young children.