Songfacts®:

• "Speak Like a Child" was the Style Council's debut single, released on March 11, 1983. Coming just a few months after Paul Weller dissolved The Jam, it announced a dramatic change in direction. His former band ran on sharp guitars and youthful urgency, but this new project arrived powered by Hammond organ, slapped bass, and enough soul and jazz influences to make longtime Jam fans check they hadn't bought the wrong record by mistake.
• The song is a breathless love letter to an unconventional golden-haired woman whose carefree spirit and purity fascinates Weller. She moves through the world with a kind of effortless confidence, and communicates with honesty, spontaneity, and a refreshing lack of adult cynicism.
• The title is a direct tribute to Herbie Hancock's 1968 Blue Note album Speak Like a Child. On that album, Hancock explained his own philosophy: "There are certain elements of childhood we lose and wish we could have back - purity, spontaneity. When they do return to us, we're at our best. So what I'm telling the world is: 'Speak like a child.'"
  
  Weller borrowed this concept and made it the foundation of a love song, celebrating a woman who naturally embodies what Hancock was preaching. "We were always hoping to share our influences with fans," Weller told Mojo magazine.
• Despite sharing a title with Hancock's contemplative jazz album, the single sounds nothing like it. Instead, it bounces along as an upbeat blue-eyed soul record. The absence of guitars was particularly striking, serving notice that the Style Council would not simply be The Jam under a different name.
• Fans interpreted the song as a portrait of a younger, free-thinking woman who captured Weller's imagination during this transitional period. Dee C. Lee, who joined the Style Council as a backing singer and later became Weller's wife, was part of the band's early lineup, though she has never been confirmed as the direct inspiration for the lyrics.
• Weller wrote the song himself and co-produced it with Peter Wilson, who would become a key collaborator throughout the Style Council's early years. The drums were played by Zeke Manyika of Orange Juice after a chance encounter with Weller and Mick Talbot at Polydor's offices. Manyika agreed to join the session on the spot.
• Backing vocals came from Tracie Young, one of the first artists signed to Weller's Respond Records label. Young won Weller's attention after answering a Smash Hits advertisement seeking a female vocalist and sending in a demo tape. She had already appeared on The Jam's farewell single, "Beat Surrender," before lending her voice to the Style Council's debut. Young soon scored her own UK Top 10 hit with "The House That Jack Built."
• The music video was directed by Tim Pope, who at the time was also establishing himself as the go-to director for The Cure and Soft Cell. Pope directed multiple Style Council promos during 1983, including "Money-Go-Round" and "Long Hot Summer." Weller, Style Council keyboardist Mick Talbot, and Tracie Young all appear in the video.