The Clash's "Hidden Gem" hits American Top 40 Radio

The Clash : Train in Vain (Stand By Me)

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On March 22, 1980 The Clash visited the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time with the ridiculously catchy "Train in Vain (Stand By Me)" b/w "London Calling", which debuted #84. The song would peak at US#23.

Written in the immediate aftermath of a break up with Viv Albertine of The Slits, Mick Jones sings lyrics we've all heard ourselves say at one point: 

You said you love me and that's a fact 

And then you left me, said you felt trapped  

Albertine tells EccentricSleeveNotes.com: 

"Train in Vain, what a beautiful song. It still makes me laugh when I hear it because mmm… I wasn't that bad...I'm really proud to have inspired that but often he won't admit to it. He used to get the train to my place in Shepherds Bush and I would not let him in. He was bleating on the doorstep. That was cruel. It's such an odd title; there's nothing in it about a train."

The song appears on the album London Calling, but you won't find the title on the original releases. Mick Jones explained the reason why to MTV:

"The real story on "Train in Vain" is that originally we needed a song to give to the NME for a flexi disk that NME was going to do. And then it was decided that it didn't work out or decided the flexi disk didn't work out so we had this spare track we had done as a giveaway. So we put it on London Calling but there wasn't time because the sleeves were already done."

That makes "Train in Vain" a hidden gem, and the song that finally opened the American market to "the only band that ever mattered".