“Toast” by Streetband

"Toast" was never meant to be the hit. Streetband, the group fronted by Paul Young, cut it as filler for the B-side of their first single, "Hold On": a studio mix-up left them with three free hours, and Chaz Jankel suggested they spend them on this. Young later explained it as something to turn a Sunday crowd's heads away from the bar.

Then Kenny Everett started spinning it on Capital Radio, the sides were flipped a month later, and the novelty number rode the airplay to number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. The timing helped: it arrived during the bakers' strike of the Winter of Discontent, with people queuing for bread, and radio couldn't get enough of it. It also turns up on the band's debut album, London.

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