With its countrified main hook, timeless lyrics and catchy chorus, Glasgow band the Bluebells must've known they were on to a winner with Young at Heart.
And so it proved upon the now iconic song's original release when it saw the group claim their first top ten hit, peaking at No.8 in July 1984 - but there was even better to come.
Good things come to those who wait, or so the old Guinness telly adverts taught us, and, speaking of which, it was a TV commercial that would propel a reissued version of the tune to the toppermost of the poppermost of the UK charts on April 3, 1993. It would stay at No.1 for an incredible four weeks, thereby earning Young at Heart earworm status for eternity.
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It was an altogether unexpected but thoroughly deserved result for a band whose mid-eighties success had been all too brief - and it had been achieved with the most unlikely of songs.
Banarama original
What few people realise about Young at Heart is that it originally appeared on Bananarama's debut album Deep Sea Skiving in 1983 - a year prior to the Bluebells' version.
While the song was credited to the entire Bananarama trio, it was actually co-penned by the group's Siobhan Fahey and her then-boyfriend, Robert Hodgens, AKA Bobby Bluebell, founder and guitarist of the Bluebells.
Listening to Banarama's take on the song, however, there are few similarities. The poppy arrangement bears no relation to how Young at Heart would end up sounding once tackled by the Bluebells 12 months later.
When it came to recording their own version, it's clear the Bluebells wanted the song to sound very different. To achieve this, they enlisted the talents of session musician Bobby Valentino, whose violin hook would take the song to new heights.
It barely took 30 minutes to write and record his iconic part, Valentino told BBC's The One Show in 2010: "I was out within half an hour. The producer asked me to 'fill in the holes' with something jiggy."
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Valentino, who would also appear in the video for the track alongside the band and Altered Images star Clare Grogan, did just that, filling the gaps in the music with a reversed country lick that would become the focal point of the entire song.
The single and its reissue would go on to sell a whopping 400,000 copies - not that Valentino benefitted greatly from it at the time. He was reportedly paid just £75 for the violin lick and solo parts, but later reached a court settlement with the band and now has a writing credit.
While the Bluebells' initial release of Young at Heart went as well as could reasonably be expected, few could have expected the song to surpass itself almost a decade later - and a full seven years after the band had split up.
1993 reissue
As is often the case, there were several quirks of fate at work when the song re-emerged in 1993, as Bobby Bluebell himself told the National in 2019.
He recalled: "In 1993 Clare [Grogan’s] sister Kate was working for an advertising company and they had shot the advert for Volkswagen. They were going to use Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You for the music but the film The Bodyguard had just come out and the cost of using the tune went through the roof because Whitney Houston had recorded it.
"So, Kate suggested Young At Heart, they put it to what they had shot and it worked really well; it had the same joie de vivre."
Due to the popularity of the car advert and the song that accompanied it, a decision was made to re-release Young at Heart. When it soared to the top of the charts, the band would briefly reform to play Top of the Pops.
Bobby Bluebell continued: "We’re listening [to the charts] and we weren’t number four, we weren’t number three, and the DJ says 'And at number two this week is … Shaggy with Miss Carolina', and we just erupted, we were jumping around the room. Being at number one a long time after we had first written the song was incredible."
For four long weeks, the song stayed in the number one spot, with an ecstatic reformed Bluebells having fun on Top of the Pops by parodying other famous acts of the day, including Shabba Ranks and 2 Unlimited.
Not bad at all for a song that Bobby Bluebell admits was a thank you letter to his parents for the sacrifices they made in marrying young and having "given up certain things". No wonder Young at Heart has such timeless appeal.
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