AS IF TO UNDERLINE HOW PIVOTAL A YEAR IT REALLY WAS, ONE OF WALES’ FINEST SINGER-SONGWRITERS, SCRITTI POLITTI’S GREEN GARTSIDE, CHOSE 1981 TO MAKE A REMARKABLE CHANGE OF DIRECTION…

JOHN EARLS

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ne of the most unlikely classic songs of 1981, The “Sweetest Girl” saw post-punk collective Scritti Politti suddenly decide they were exquisite pop balladeers. It set Green Gartside off on an incredible run of perfectly-pitched pop, including the classic album Cupid & Psyche 85. In a rare interview, Green reveals how The “Sweetest Girl” was nearly made by Kraftwerk – and why they changed tack…

The “Sweetest Girl” was wildly different from anything Scritti Politti had made for Rough Trade. How did it come about?

It was the first poppy song I tried to write. I’d gone out of my way to avoid making pop songs before. To me, The “Sweetest Girl” was influenced by lovers’ rock and Kraftwerk. It doesn’t really sound like either of them, but that was the plan. The nuts idea we had was to get artists better suited to record the song after I wrote it, so I went to Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis and said “Why don’t we get Kraftwerk to do the music and Gregory Isaacs to sing it?”