In the United States, it gave the band their sole appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching number 74 in October 1985.

It was later performed by the band's lead singer, Fish, at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at Wembley Stadium, with Midge Ure on guitar and Phil Collins on drums.

Fish told Classic Rock in 2014, "I'd wanted to write a song about a girlfriend I'd split up with, whose name was Kay.

The 'stilettos in the snow', that was something that happened in Galashiels, when I can remember going down one night and we were both really drunk, and, you know, dancin' under a street light, and 'dawn escapes from moon-washed college halls' was part of the Cambridge thing.

It was kept from number one by a version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by the charity supergroup the Crowd in June 1985, which was released following the Bradford City stadium fire.

Tamara Nowy, a German woman who subsequently married lead singer Fish, and Robert Mead, the boy portrayed on the sleeve of the album and the single, appeared in the video.

The most famous of these is Kayleigh, which came into existence thanks to the neo-prog rock band Marillion, who had a number two hit with a single of this name in 1985.

[8]In 2012, it was announced that the Scottish Borders Council was to inscribe extracts from the song's lyrics into the pavement at the newly developed Market Square in Galashiels.

[9]In 2013, in a presentation on crowd funding for a TED conference in Bedford, Marillion keyboardist Mark Kelly identified the song's popularity as "part of the reason I've never had a proper job and I've been able to make a living from music for the past 32 years".