“Cash Machine” by Hard-Fi

"Cash Machine" was Hard-Fi's debut single, first put out in January 2005 from Stars of CCTV, and it's a skint man's anthem from Richard Archer, who wrote it and fronts the band. By his own account it's about having no money, and it paints the life he knew before any success: bad news on the screen at the ATM, a train fare he can't cover, a ticket inspector waiting. Near the end it twists the old folk song "There's a Hole in the Bucket" into a hole in his own pocket.

The first time out, a sticker on the packaging got it barred from the UK singles chart. Once "Hard to Beat" had made the band's name, it came back at the end of 2005 and climbed to 14 in the UK and 15 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, going through three different videos along the way.

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