‘When the record company liked it, I was embarrassed – I was a hip new wave producer by then. I said I had a better song about a woman who was eaten by her dog’
I wrote this song when I was still in the group Brinsley Schwarz. As a 70s pub-rock band, it was kind of taboo for us to admit to liking disco, but we were fans, and I was in love with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ The Love I Lost. So the original version of Cruel to Be Kind was my attempt at a floor-filler for when we played clubs and freshers’ balls.
