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The lyrics to this Bacharach and David classic are few, but truly bizarre. I'm always particularly intrigued by the decision to rhyme "The way that we cheered whenever our team was scoring a touchdown" with "The time that the floor fell out of my car when I put the clutch down". And no, I didn't just make that up.

For many readers, this song is forever irritatingly linked in their minds with a series of TV commercials for Quality Street chocolates. Had it not been for this piece of invasive marketing, perhaps it would be remembered more for the fact that it is, I think, one of the earliest examples of the truck driver's gear change.

You couldn't really accuse the writers of cynicism, since it's from an era when, at under three minutes, it's perfectly long enough to get through without a gear change. And indeed it comes right in the middle of the song rather than at the end – also the era when having a cheesily neat ending was preferable to a fade-out.

There's nothing much to be said for the technique itself: straight to the point yet somehow quite soothing, it's introduced by a weird little brass noise before the main riff (if that's not too strong a word) takes over in the new key. And then on with some absurd lyrics about the phone line being busy. Clearly the era, too, before broadband.

Listen!