Terry Hall, "Forever J" (1994)

C'mon. You gotta love a song that begins with the line "Like Isabelle Adjani/She glides by upon a bank of violets/With those eyes that see it all," right? And then goes on to namecheck yet another movie star when Adjani's double tells our narrator "'You're no Mel Gibson, but that's ok/Today could be your lucky day,'" no?

Having been in, in order, The Specials (passed me by), Fun Boy Three (better with a side of Bananarama), The Colourfield (brilliant but shortlived), Terry, Blair and Anouchka (fabulous but shortlived), and Vegas (um, that version of "She" was good, and they were meant to be shortlived), Terry Hall might possibly hold some kind of record for, um, being-in-bandiness. In 1994 he finally became a proper solo artist and released the album Home to a wave of popular indifference. Shame, really, because in addition to including Terry's version of the poptastic "Sense" (which is better known -- just barely better known -- as a Lightning Seeds song, since Ian Broudie co-wrote and recorded his own version), the album contained nine other great ditties. Including this first single, which is apparently about Terry's then-wife Jeannette. I guess, given how she is "uncertain, coy and hard to please," and can only kiss our narrator "through gritted teeth," we shouldn't be too surprised then she is only his then-wife. But there's no removing the tattoo that is this song, Terry. Oh, love.