The Undertones released one of the greatest debut singles of all time in Teenage Kicks – in fact one of the best ever singles, full stop.

I’m surprised to find that, having so far highlighted more than a thousand songs that soundtracked my life, I never got around to posting what is surely one of the top ten tunes to come out of punk. Until now.

Teenage Kicks has to be one of the greatest debut singles a band has ever released – and one of the greatest singles, full stop. It has enough pop sensibility to have topped the charts for months on end. Instead it stalled at No.31.

At heart, it’s a Sixties pop song, with an infectious riff, an infectious chorus, and even infectious lyrics capturing the effervescent joy of young love.

Sheer perfection.

The Undertones – five Catholic schoolfriends from the Creggan and Bogside estates – formed in pre-punk Derry in 1974.

Initially they consisted of two O’Neill brothers, Vincent and John, on guitar, drummer Billy Doherty and bassist Michael Bradley, with a 16-year-old scout leader called Feargal Sharkey as their singer.

Unlike other Northern Ireland bands such as the powerfully political Stiff Little Fingers, they steered well clear of the Troubles, singing instead about “chocolates and girls.”

By the time they made a demo of Teenage Kicks, written by John in the summer of ’77, Vincent had left the band and been replaced by his (and John’s) younger brother Damien on lead guitar.

They sent it to record companies in the UK and were unanimously rejected but one copy reached John Peel who gave them £200 to re-record it professionally in a Belfast studio.

In September 1978 it came out on a 4-track EP released by a Belfast record shop owner, Terry Hooley, on his own Good Vibrations label.

When it came out, Peel famously played Teenage Kicks twice in a row on his Radio 1 show – and would name it his favourite song of all time until his dying day.

Since when, the song’s lyric – “Teenage dreams so hard to beat” – have been engraved, as per his wishes, on his gravestone.