“The Look of Love” by ABC

"The Look of Love" arrived in 1982 as the third single from The Lexicon of Love, ABC's debut, and it's heartbreak dressed in its Sunday best: strings swooping, horns strutting, the vocal swooning like it has read every romance novel and believes none of them. Trevor Horn produced, and Martin Fry, David Palmer, Stephen Singleton and Mark White share the writing.

It became the English band's biggest hit at home, reaching number 4 in the UK, and topped the Billboard dance chart and the Canadian singles chart. The single came in four parts, from the full album version to an instrumental, a vocal take without the orchestral overdubs and a short acoustic coda of strings, horns, harp and xylophone. Horn's separate American remix dub became a club DJ favourite, and original copies went for serious money.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.