“Wood Beez” by Scritti Politti

"Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" hit British shops on Virgin in February 1984, more than a year before the album that would finally house it, Scritti Politti's Cupid & Psyche 85. Green Gartside wrote the words and the music, and the subtitle is a knowing wink at Aretha Franklin's "I Say a Little Prayer". The joke runs deeper than the title, too: the man behind the desk, Arif Mardin, had produced Franklin himself.

What Mardin gets out of Gartside is glossy, fidgety synth-pop, David Gamson's keyboards clicking and popping while B.J. Nelson's backing vocals buff the edges to a high shine. It was the record that finally broke the band at home, climbing to No. 10 in Britain over a 16-week stay and going top 30 in Australia and New Zealand; in America it trailed "Perfect Way" and stalled at No. 91.

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