Pop quiz trivia question: what was the real name of ‘M’, the one-hit wonder behind the novelty hit single Pop Muzik? Answer: Robin Scott.

I thought I really hated this novelty song when it soared to the top of the charts in 1979, though I must be mistaken because I have the 12-inch single in my collection.

Mind you, the reason I bought that may have been not so much the insanely catchy song but its double-groove gimmick – so that you got the A-side or the B-side (M-Factor) depending on where you placed the needle on the disc, and a disco mix on the “Seaside” (geddit).

At the time you just couldn’t escape people copying its “New York – London – Paris – Munich” mantra. Everybody was literally talking about Pop Muzik.

But nobody was talking about Robin Scott, the bloke who made the infectious tune with the nonsense lyric, because it was released under the Bond-like nom-de-guerre M.

He appeared in Brian Grant’s striking video as a club DJ, flanked by two robotic female models, and (I now discover) his then-partner Brigit Novik, who was the backing singer.

I now find that although it topped the singles charts in most countries around the world, including the USA, it never made it to No.1 in the UK, despite two weeks at No.2 – kept off top spot by Art Garfunkel’s execrable Bright Eyes.

Apparently, Scott initially envisaged the song in a funky R&B style, before a friend of his suggested using synthesisers… And a hit was born.

Along with Scott, other musicians who played on the track were his brother Julian Scott on bass, then-unknown keyboardist Wally Badarou and drummer Phil Gould – both later to become members of Level 42 – and Canadian synthesiser programmer John Lewis.

“I was looking to make a fusion of various styles which somehow would summarise the last 25 years of pop music,” he explained. “It was a deliberate point I was trying to make. Whereas rock and roll had created a generation gap, disco was bringing people together on an enormous scale.

“That’s why I really wanted to make a simple, bland statement, which was, ‘All we’re talking about basically (is) pop music.'”