New York vocal group The Persauders had their only UK hit with Thin Line Between Love And Hate long before before The Pretenders.

Long before twerking was invented, before bumping and grinding and bogling and daggering, If you wanted to make an instant impression on your audience, you dressed up in fancy costumes and invented your own dance routine.

Like pretty much everyone else, except some soul fans even older than me, I only know this classic heartache ballad from a cover version by The Pretenders.

This is the original by a New York vocal quartet called The Persuaders, whose costumes and choreography are… let’s say a little unique.

The inspiration for their opening moves might have come from watching aeroplanes take off and land; or they might just be the first thing that came into their heads.

This was their only hit single, sung by Douglas ‘Smokey’ Scott, backed up by Willie Holland, James Barnes and Charles Stodghill – none of them still with us, sadly.

With its impassioned vocal, smooth harmonies and lavish orchestration by the Poindexter brothers (Richard and Bobby), it had instant appeal, especially to all the lay-deez in the house, and was a million-seller in 1971.

Another of their songs, Some Guys Have All The Luck, would hit the UK charts but not by them – becoming a hit three times in the 1980s for Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart and Maxi Priest.

If some guys really do have all the luck, it was definitely not The Persuaders themselves.

A year after this Barnes left the group and later in 1972, Stodghill died of an illness – soon after narrowly escaping death in a bar argument where his former bandmate Bobby Adams had been killed defending him.

With two new members on board, Bobby Poindexter produced a second album with his wife, Jackie Members, who had also been a co-writer of the Thin Line Between Love And Hate single, but by the end of the year, Scott was the only remaining original member.

In a further slice of bad luck, they were literally pipped by Gladys Knight when their version of The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me – recorded before Gladys – came out just as hers was rising up the charts.