This comedy song by The Clovers warns against the perils of not one but two of pop music’s traditionally favourite pastimes – sex AND booze.

I first heard it on the soundtrack of Todd Haynes’s wonderful lesbian romance Carol and it tells such a vivid story that it could make a movie in its own right.

You might even argue that the storyline in One Mint Julep is the lyrical equivalent of a pop video a quarter of a century before pop videos were invented.

Allegedly written for The Clovers by Atlantic Records boss Ahmed Ertegun, it’s a classic semi-comedic story song in the style that was popular in the early 1950s.

The record starts with the right hand of Harry Van Walls whose tinkling piano keys sound like icicles dropping on the pavement after the sun comes out on a winter’s day, while the left hand and faint drums take their time to get to the literally intoxicating tale that follows.

Lead singer Buddy Bailey plays the role of a self-professed ladies man who gets himself entangled with a young lady whom he takes home in the hope of some hanky panky.

In order to ease proceedings along, and increase her enthusiasm for their romantic assignation, he pours her a drink to loosen her up – the titular mint julep.

All is going well – “the lights were burnin’ low” – when the young lady’s father bursts in and catches them in flagrante delicto. Next thing you know they’re married with six kids.

The humour is enhanced by the throbbing interjections of Harold Winley’s double bass, some subtle guitar and a sparing saxophone that appears out of the dark momentarily before retreating into the shadows again.

As a musical metaphor for this one-night stand with consequences, it’s a textbook example of how a really great arrangement in both the singing and backing track combine to make it sound as dangerous as the plot itself for the unsuspecting narrator.

One Mint Julep gave The Clovers their third successive hit in 1952 when it reached No.2 in the singles chart, following their first and second singles the previous year – Don’t You Know I Love You and Fool, Fool, Fool – which both reached No.1.

One place higher and The Clovers would have shared the chart-topping hat-trick achieved by Elvis after he moved to RCA, The Beatles on Capitol Records, and The Supremes on Motown.

One Mint Julep went on to be covered by legends like Ray Charles and Booker T. & The MGs, who both recorded instrumental versions – the former a huge hit a decade later.