Wire’s debut single Mannequin is one of the mellower and more melodic songs to be taken from their landmark debut album Pink Flag.

It’s odd that even though I love Wire – one of the few bands from the Class of ’77 I still see today – I seem to have forgotten their marvellous debut single.

Only when I came across it in my collection and played it did I dimly recall Mannequin, one of the more melodic tracks to come from Pink Flag.

By the standards of punk in general – and that album in particular – it’s catchy as hell, like their later singles Dot Dash and I Am The Fly.

Perhaps I’d almost forgotten it because it’s one of the mellower numbers on their landmark debut album and appears late on among its 21 tracks.

I’ve always thought it odd that Pink Flag is now regarded as the genesis of post-punk, even though that term had not been invented when it came out.

Mannequin was released in November 1977 with a new version of 12XU on the B-side, along with another song from Pink Flag called Feelin’ Called Love.

As others have noted, the trilogy of their first three albums, Pink Flag, 154 and Chairs Missing, is pretty hard to beat as an introduction to a band. And they still sound as remarkable today.