A bit of a retread of Maggie May, maybe – but none the worse for that. And all the better for gathering The Faces together again, even if it’s actually a solo Rod Stewart single.

The video features one of those wonderful moments on Top of the Pops where there’s a solo of some sort and the director (always a ‘square’ older dude in my mind, probably on hiaitus from Panorama) demands a close-up of the wrong musician.

In this one we hear Ronnie Wood’s delicate electric guitar break near the end of the song – and zoon in to see fingers on the fretboard of an acoustic guitar, moving up to the face of a speccy older bloke, his sweaty brow furrowed in concentration.

He’s Martin Quittenton, once of blues-rock band Steamhammer, and he co-wrote this song (and Maggie May). He also turned down Rod’s offer to join The Faces because of their hard-drinking hotel-wrecking rock’n’roll lifestyle. He would later turn down an offer to play on Atlantic Crossing too.

The violinist is Dick ‘Sweet’ Powell, by day an eminent architect, by night an equally eminent jazz violinist, whom Rod spotted playing at Pizza Express in Dean Street and brought in to play on his first four solo albums. His memorable contribution to Reason To Believe (and this) earned him a whopping £10 from the famously stingy Stewart.

Don’t be fooled by the sheet of foolscap in Rod’s hand: it’s a stage prop because the song lyric is a regretful letter to an ex. In contrast to the braggardly bollocks he usually writes, it contains some of Rod’s most poignant lyrics (“Since you’ve been gone it’s hard to carry on”) and some of his best rhymes (“homesick blues” with “radical views,” “basement parties” with “your brother’s karate”).

Anyway, my coffee’s cold, and I’m getting told that I gotta get back to work…