“Sale of The Century” by Sleeper

"Sale of the Century" went out in Europe in 1996 as the second single from The It Girl, Sleeper's second album, and it cracked the UK top 10, their first hit that high. Louise Wener wrote it with drummer Andy MacLure, and it's her show: she wrote the words, sings them, and plays guitar next to Jon Stewart. Wener has said the person at its center is a little mad with love until reason creeps back in, and that she's drawn to that kind of dreamy persistence, and to people who never get what they want.

Stephen Street produced it and added keyboards, John Green brought synth and piano, Diid Osman played bass, and MacLure handled drums, percussion and some acoustic guitar before John Smith mixed it. Among the B-sides was the band's cover of Blondie's "Atomic", cut for the Trainspotting soundtrack.

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