I fell in love with Ellen Foley’s album Night Out the moment I heard this bombastic and blissful opening track – We Belong To The Night. With its piano runs, crunchy guitars, loud drums and epic Wall of Sound production, it could have come from a female-fronted remake of Born To Run.

I had no idea Ellen Foley was the girl who had sung opposite Meat Loaf on Paradise by the Dashboard Light (mostly because she was not the girl in the video, who mimed to her voice), nor that she had sung on a Blue Oyster Cult song, Mirrors.

Night Out is produced by Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, with Foley backed by his touring band, with Hunter on keyboards and Mick Ronson on lead guitar. His solo on this song takes a while to arrive but is well worth the wait.

The whole album is brilliant, including the second single, What’s A Matter Baby, and covers of the Stones (Stupid Girl) and Graham Parker (Thunder And Rain), plus two songs – Night Out and Young Lust – by Phil Rambow.

The combination of Hunter’s piano and Ronno’s guitar throughout is just sublime; Foley went on to make a second album produced by her boyfriend of the time, The Clash’s Mick Jones, and their rocky relationship inspired his hit Should I Stay Or Should I Go for the band.

She sang a couple of songs on Sandinista! (Hitsville UK and Corner Soul) and one on Combat Rock (Car Jamming), and The Clash returned the favour by playing on her second album, The Spirit Of St Louis.

After making five solo albums, Foley studied acting in New York and has appeared in Broadway shows before becoming a TV regular on Night Court in the mid-Eighties, and reprising one of her stage roles in Milos Forman’s film of Hair. Other film credits include Fatal Attraction, Married To The Mob and Cocktail.