This power pop pastiche of Phil Spector brought pub rockers The Kursaal Flyers their only hit record in 1976. Which is ironic as they had another great song earlier in their career actually called Hit Records.

It’s not just the catchiness of the tune, or Mike Batt’s lavish Spectoresque production – strings, brass, choirs, reverb and all – but the wit of Will Birch’s account of spotting his two-timing girlfriend in the coin-op laundromat:

“When she finished her laundry she was all in a quandary
And made it for the street like a hare
Her escape was so urgent, she forgot her detergent
And dropped all her clean underwear.”

The Kursaals came from the same stretch of Essex Riviera that brought us Dr Feelgood and Eddie & The Hot Rods at the same time, the mid-’70s. Perhaps it was something in the estuary, oozing from those oil refineries.

Their first two albums, Chocs Away and Golden Mile, had failed to bring them success but suddenly they were on Top of the Pops with singer Paul Shuttleworth turning on the end-of-the-pier cabaret charm in his wideboy check suit and spivvy grin.

Soon after this guitarist Graeme Douglas left to join the Hot Rods, co-writing their best and biggest hit Do Anything You Wanna Do.

The Kursaals broke up soon afterwards, with Birch forming The Records before turning his wordsmithery to use as a journalist and, later, author of a fine Ian Dury biography.