This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. I never tire of hearing it, with its shimmering echo from speaker to speaker, Green Gartside’s romantic vocal and Robert Wyatt’s syncopated piano.

I thought I remembered it coming out originally on one of those flexi-discs the music papers occasionally gave away but it seems it was actually a cassette tape.

C81 was a compilation of the first five years of indie music (from 1976-81) put together jointly by NME and Rough Trade. It featured a varied collection of artists ranging from Robert Wyatt and Pere Ubu to The Beat and Orange Juice, The Raincoats and Cabaret Voltaire.

The “Sweetest Girl” was the opening track on side one and showcased a smooth new direction for Scritti Politti, who had caught my ear as a punk group and Peel favourite, releasing a couple of EPs with avant-garde touches and Marxist-influenced lyrics.

With hindsight, this song is a bridge to the soft blue-eyed soul style that they would adopt and enjoy success with when they released Cupid & Psyche 85, spawning hits including The Word Girl and Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin).

The transition came after front man and songwriter Gartside, who had formed the band in Leeds in 1977, took a nine-month convalescence at his parents’ home in Wales after suffering a panic attack – initially diagnosed as a heart attack – brought on by stage fright at the end of a gig with Gang Of Four in 1979.

When he returned, it was with a new set of pop, funk and soul influences and this magnificent song, best heard in this its original cassette version – and always in stereo.