When it came to Slade, the last thing you looked for was something slow, sensitive and sentimental. Especially after they spent Christmas 1973 at the top of the charts with the raucous Merry Christmas Everybody. But a few months later along came this elegiac piano ballad.

Understandably in view of their reputation for rowdy rock’n’roll anthems, at the time the band did not think Everyday was a single. Especially Jim Lea, who wrote it with his wife Louise.

The band argued about it all the way to Australia with their manager and producer Chas Chandler, who sensed that a change of direction might benefit the band before they became stale.

By the time the plane landed, the manager had won and Slade’s next single would be this plodding piano ballad – albeit a sentimental hands-in-the-air arms-waving pub singalong of a plodding piano ballad.

The song came about in an unusual way at Jim’s house, when he had some friends round and was asked how he came up with Slade’s songs. “Easy,” he replied. “Anyone can do it.” To prove the point, he asked everyone to come up with an idea for a song right there on the spot. This was the suggestion of Jim’s wife Louise.

Unusually for Slade, the guitar solo is played by Jim Lea because Dave Hill was out of the country on his honeymoon when they recorded the single… but back in time to mime it on Top of the Pops.