She's an angel in the night, what she does is alright

I came to Kirsty MacColl late.

But I will commemorate her birthday early.

This Sunday, Oct. 10, would have been her 51st birthday. Her fans will gather on that day as they do each year on Oct. 10 near a bench placed in her honor in London’s Soho Square, after a lyric to her marvelous song of the same name.

MacColl only released five albums (along with several compilations), but she crafted numerous gems, of which "There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Show Swears He’s Elvis" was the first to catch my ear (about a dozen years after it was released – how did I miss it?) But "Chip Shop" was the perfect introduction, with its sense of humor, British attitude and Billy Bremner’s sterling rockabilly guitar.

This led me to her entire catalog, of which there are many small (and not so small) pop masterpieces that showcased wry lyrics and lovely vocals (with many multi-tracked harmony backups by MacColl herself). Of those, "Titanic Days" and "Caroline" are, respectively, haunting and soaring. and rank among the better pop songs written in the last quarter century. And dare I say that her version of the magnificent “Days” topped that of the Kinks?

I was lucky enough to see MacColl once, at Shepherd’s Bush in London a year or so before her death. I could sense her self-admitted stage fright, but her voice rose above the room’s thick haze and carried her through.

Hers was music that was witty and sophisticated, and some of it was damn near brilliant.

Strictly 100 – Number 6: Kirsty MacColl