“A New England” (Kirsty MacColl)

Today’s classic song of the day is virtually unknown here in the States but was a big hit across the pond. The song is “A New England” and the artist is Kirsty MacColl. If you haven’t heard of her, you need to.

Kirsty MacColl was a British singer and songwriter who was fairly successful in the 1980s and 1990s. You might know her as the writer of yesterday’s classic song of the day, Tracey Ullman’s “They Don’t Know.” You also may have heard her singing with the Pogues on their depressing Christmas classic, “Fairytale of New York.” If you’re from the UK, you probably know her hits “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis,” “Terry,” “Days,” and “Walking Down Madison.”

Ironically, while her biggest hit as a songwriter was sung by someone else (Tracey Ullman), her biggest solo hit as a performer was written by another songwriter. “A New England” was written and originally recorded in 1983 by Billy Bragg. Ms. MacColl released her cover of the tune, produced by her then-husband, Steve Lillywhite, in December of 1984. As Ms. MacColl recalled later:

“I always thought ‘A New England’ would be great with loads of harmonies, it’s such a good melody. Billy does it in a very rough way, and it’s like a busker doing a really good Beatles song… I knew the song was fantastic, but [his] version was just the skeleton of the song, so I wanted to dress it up.”

Kirsty MacColl’s version of “A New England” is a wonderful track, complete with jangly Byrds-like twelve-string guitar and lush background vocals. Bragg’s original version had just two verses, so he wrote a third verse to flesh it out for MacColl’s recording. It peaked at #7 on the UK Singles chart.

Ms. MacColl broke onto the scene in 1979 and continued recording, performing, and writing for almost two decades. Her life was tragically cut short when she was on holiday in Mexico in December of 2000 and was killed by a rogue motorboat traveling at high speed through a designated diving area. Kirsty was able to push her 15 year-old son Jamie out of the boat’s path but she was hit by the boat and died instantly of severe chest and head injuries.

And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Kirsty MacColl’s music video for one of her bigger UK hits, “Terry.” How could I have lived so long and not heard Kirsty MacColl? (Okay, I don’t live in England, so that’s probably it.) She’s a treasure and she died too soon—and I started listening way too late.