Relax: 40 years of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's greatest ever hit song

One late October afternoon in 1983, I was hanging around in my street with friends – as you did back then – when a neighbour opened his front door, walked towards us with a worn ghetto blaster that glistened like mother-of-pearl and said, “You have got to listen to this.” He played a song none of us had ever heard before. And then he rewound the cassette and played it again. And again. And again.

The song was and all I can recall was thinking it sounded different. It’s now 40 years this week since Relax reached No 1 and began one of the briefest but most exhilarating