I'm going to have a go at this. And my favourite song is Fantastic Day by Haircut 100.
Why? Hmm.
I suspect it's pointless trying to analyse the abstract merits of a song, especially to explain why it's your favourite. What 'favourite' is really about is how a piece of music and your life seem to fit each other.
My early musical life was all prog and classical. Then when I realised that meant ostracism at school I cast about for something to like; flirted with NWOBHM, had a very brief ska phase, never really liked all that gloomy post-punk stuff. And then found the perfect solution in the joy of perfect pop - good tunes, nice clothes and intellectual credibility courtesy of Penman and Morley.
And Fantastic Day is so perfect. The chorus; "It's a Fantastic Day" What else do you need? Brilliant lyrics, poised between nonsense and sense, archly knowing how silly they are - ("Prance and flutter stride down that green escalator yeah" ) - the perfect response to Style Council pomposity.
"Well there`s a great amount of strain/About getting on that train/Every day and every night"
Even that sounded glamorous to me. What did I know about commuting? I was 16, it just sounded good.
I briefly met Nick Heyward once. I was in a band, we were going to be on Razzmattazz (not this episode) and got invited to the launch party for it with all these proper pop stars. So I went on a special trip to Top Man in Nottingham and got something new to wear - trying to dress like a pop star. I remember it being some grey canvasy jacket thing with lots of straps and pockets, the sort of thing you can imagine Howard Jones or Fiction Factory wearing.
Then Nick Heyward walked in, I think it was just before North Of A Miracle came out and he looked brilliant. All preppy and American, thinking about it he'd obviously been to all the US vintage stores down the Kings Road (which I'd no idea existed) and possibly to J. Simon. But that preppy thing just didn't exist then. No-one looked like that. Everyone else looked somewhat like they worked at 4AD or had just been in the Union Of The Snake video, he was just from a brighter, poppier, perfecter world.
I think, to some extent, that's the moment when I realised pop stardom wasn't for me. I was trying to look like a pop star, he just was one. And he wrote Fantastic Day.