“Lady in Red” by Chris de Burgh

Chris de Burgh had been making records long enough to reach his eighth album, Into the Light, before "The Lady in Red" changed everything. A&M issued it as that album's follow-up single on 20 June 1986, and it turned the Irish singer-songwriter from a cult act into a household name: number one in several countries, top three in the US, his best-selling single and his signature tune, though he never landed another international hit that big.

He wrote it for his wife, who used to turn up at his shows in his parents' hotel. On This Is Your Life he traced it to the moment he first saw her, and to how rarely a husband can say what his wife had on that day. Underneath the swoon, a Roland TR-808 taps out the beat, in B♭ major.

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