One of the many pleasures of listening to the Forgotten 80s radio show is hearing a hit of which you have absolutely no memory whatsoever.

A classic example came on the air a few weekends ago. The intro featured a ramshackle, lumbering, almost-reggae groove with party voices, sleazy horns and a good bass player (revealed when listening on a decent system, but it’s almost impossible to find out which musicians played on the single) before a strident, excellent, slightly familiar voice took centre stage.

Eddi Reader? Basia? Debbie Harry? Lene Lovich? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I was gobsmacked to hear that it was actually the first solo single by Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA, released just over 40 years ago (her bandmate Frida had just had her own hit, ‘I Know There’s Something’s Going On’, produced by Phil Collins).

‘The Heat Is On’ got to #1 in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Belgium, #2 in The Netherlands and Germany, #29 in the USA and #35 in the UK.

The incredibly catchy number turns out to be a cover of a 1979 near-hit by Australian singer Noosha Fox. Written by Florrie Palmer and Tony Ashton, it was also massacred by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1980 in a truly screwed up version retitled ‘On The Run’.

But back to Agnetha. Her version of ‘The Heat Is On’ was produced by Mike Chapman, on a particularly hot streak in early 1983 having just helmed Blondie’s biggest albums and Altered Images’ classic single ‘Don’t Talk To Me About Love’.

Faltskog’s accompanying album Wrap Your Arms Around Me is not so great but has apparently sold approximately 1.5 million copies worldwide to date (her second solo album, 1985’s Eyes Of A Woman, was produced by 10cc’s Eric Stewart). She has also been the subject of a BBC Four documentary (a dubious honour?) in the UK.

Now, got to get this damn song out of my head – almost an impossible task once heard a few times…