The second single from the second album by Cockney Rebel (The Psychomodo), Mr Soft gave Steve Harley his second hit after Judy Teen.

There’s a strong music hall influence in the song’s combination of a Brechtian oom-pah beat and fairground organ melodies, not to mention Harley’s extravagant phrasing and dramatic movements, inspired equally (it seems) by Bowie and Leo Sayer.

Harley was a notoriously difficult and egotistical fellow and managed to lose three-qurters of his band within a week of Cockney Rebel being voted Best New Act of 1974. Which is why they made two appearances on TOTP with two different line-ups.

Both featured original drummer and sole survivor Stuart Elliott and new guitarist Jim Cregan. The first found them supplemented by Herbie Flowers on bass and BA Robertson (later a solo star) on keyboards, the second – a week later – saw them supplanted by George Ford and Francis Monkman (once of Curved Air). 

Those four then became Harley’s new band… until Monkman left too, and was swiftly replaced by Duncan Mackay, now performing as Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.

Sadly, the TOTP versions lack the magic of the original, which was so brilliantly produced by Alan Parsons (with Harley), with that lovely violin solo and an insistent melody carried beneath everything by the bassy background hum of the Mike Sammes Singers.

Trivia fact: Mr Soft was the original name chosen by a Mancunian fellow called Guy Garvey for his band, before changing it to Elbow.