Bob and Marcia took Nina Simone’s prototype Black Lives Matter anthem to the top five of the UK charts in April 1970. It’s just as relevant 50 years later.

One of the funny things about looking back on the songs that shaped your childhood is how different their meanings were through a child’s eyes.

Not just the subtleties of the lyrics (I did not notice that Lola was about a transvestite at the age of 12), but also the background that’s only of interest to a more inquisitive adult mind.

For example, I did not know until right now that this still-timely and inspirational song celebrating black lives (and, to coin a phrase, how they matter) was written and originally sung by the great Nina Simone. I had never heard of her in 1970.

I now discover that she wrote the song about her friend Lorraine Hansberry, a civil rights activist who became the first black woman to have a play performed on Broadway, and died aged just 34.

That lends added poignancy to what is already a powerful song of black pride, with a fantastic tune, performed here in the version I know – an unusual blend of reggae and strings – by Jamaican duo Bob & Marcia, aka Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths.

It reached No.5 in the UK charts for the two-hit wonders (they followed it up with Pied Piper) in 1970 – the same year it was recorded by Nina, Donny Hathaway and reggae group The Heptones – and was also covered by Aretha Franklin.