This was written by Labi Siffre, whose original version reached #14 in the UK in 1971.
Madness' backing track was recorded in 9 hours in a front room studio in a house in Dagenham, Essex.
The production duo of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley produced this track. Langer recalled the bold use of strings on this track in an article by Eric Olsen of Blogcritics Magazine: "We had the strings play pizzicato: 'plink, plink, plink,' which at that time required real musicians. It was quite an experiment and you took a lot of responsibility because you had to pay the bill. Now you can just use a sample." Winstanley added: "A few years later Trevor Horn told me that he nicked the pizzicato strings idea from us for the first ABC record - that was quite flattering really."
In 1992 this was re-issued and again it reached the UK Top 10 this time peaking at #6.
In America this was the follow-up to the band's only Top 10 hit, "Our House." However the Ealing Comedy-influenced music video for this song, which featured the band all running around in undertaker's gear, was not appreciated across the Atlantic and this song only reached #33.
The video also featured underwater performances from guitarist Chris Foreman and saxophonist Lee Thompson. Foreman recalled to Q Magazine August 2008: "In the pool, I had these lead weights on. I thought I was gonna die. The hire guitar got bent so we got a hairdryer and sent it back. They said, 'The neck's like a banana.' So we had to buy it."
Labi Siffre made a cameo appearance in the video as a violin player.
