“The Right Stuff” by Bryan Ferry

"The Right Stuff" led the way as the first single from Bête Noire, Bryan Ferry's seventh solo album, in 1987, and its bones belong to the Smiths. Johnny Marr's instrumental "Money Changes Everything", tucked away on the flip of "Bigmouth Strikes Again", became the backing track, with the former Roxy Music singer writing words over it and Marr playing the guitar himself.

Who called whom depends on who's telling it. Marr says Ferry, hunting for co-writers, had never heard of him until somebody played him some Smiths records, and that working with an old hero was great, even if the result came out a bit blow-dried. Bassist Guy Pratt says Ferry heard the instrumental, wanted to sing on it, and sent for Marr when guitarist Chester Kamen couldn't nail it. Ferry, Kamen and Patrick Leonard produced the glossy sophisti-pop result, which handed the album its one Top 40 hit in Britain.

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