This one’s been around the block a bit. Never Can Say Goodbye was written for The Supremes and first recorded by The Jackson 5 and Isaac Hayes.

But it became a disco standard in the hands of Gloria Gaynor – and returned as an Eighties hit for The Communards.

Written by actor, singer and Baptist minister Clifton Davis for The Supremes, Motown offered it instead to The Jackson 5, fronted by 12-year-old Michael Jackson, who took it into the charts for the first time.

It was then recorded by Isaac Hayes for his soul album Black Moses in 1971. But its biggest success was when it brought disco diva Gloria Gaynor to stardom in January 1974. And finally, a HI-NRG hit for The Communards in 1987.

Gloria’s version, produced by the magnificently named Disco Corporation of America, was one of the growing numer of tunes that began life on the dancefloor rather than the radio.

Gathering momentum by stealth, it took four months to work its way from the dance clubs, where DJs discovered her album’s innovative “disco mix” to be an instant floor filler, to number two in the singles chart.

It first appeared on her album Never Can Say Goodbye, featuring the then-revolutionary idea of a continuous 19-minute mix taking up Side One of the album with just three extended songs (Honey Bee, Reach Out I’ll Be There and the title track).

It was the innovative work of Tom Moulton, who effectively invented the Disco Remix. He also invented the breakdown section and the 12-inch vinyl single, to accommodate his extended versions of dancefloor favourites.

The musicians on this include the fabulous bassist Bob Babbitt, who was a member of both Motown’s studio band The Funk Brothers and Philly’s house band MFSB, bestriding the world of funk and soul like a colossus.

Gloria grew up as Gloria Fowles in New Jersey and had been recording since the Sixties, initially in a group called The Soul Satisfiers. Her first solo single was produced and released in 1965 by Johnny Nash, who suggested the name change to Gloria Gaynor, and was signed to Columbia Records by Clive Davis, but when he left the company soon afterwards she moved to MGM.