Story of the song: Puppet on a String by Sandie Shaw

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on a Eurovision winner that was hated by its vocalist

Shaw, pictured in 1967, was ‘repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune’ (Getty)

The lyricist Bill Martin and composer Phil Coulter produced some of the most recognisable hits of the Sixties and Seventies, such as “Back Home” for the 1970 England World Cup squad, and the Bay City Rollers’ clap-along “Shang-a-lang”.

But they are best remembered for the Eurovision Song Contest. First up was a fairground number for the darling of swinging London, Sandie Shaw. In the run-up to the 1967 show, she performed five potential entries on Rolf Harris's TV show. Shaw had doubts about representing the UK, but Adam Faith, who had discovered her, talked her into it, saying it would appease her manager, Eve Taylor. Shaw's career was drifting, and Taylor wanted to reinvent her as a family entertainer.

Of the five songs, “Puppet on a String”, as bouncy as a space hopper, was Shaw's least favourite. “I hated it from the very first oompah to the final bang on the big bass drum,” she's said. “I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune.”

To Shaw's dismay, not only was it selected by the viewing public to represent the UK, but she went on to win the contest by a huge margin. Taylor's gamble had paid off. Backed by “Tell the Boys”, one of the four failed entries, it was Shaw's third chart-topper and a huge European hit, clocking up more than 100 different versions, according to Coulter. The duo almost repeated their success the following year, when “Congratulations” was a Eurovision runner-up for Cliff Richard.

Shaw continued to hate her song, but it revived her career for a while and earned her a short-lived weekly television show, The Sandie Shaw Supplement, in which Shaw, backed by the BBC Orchestra, sang songs on a theme, linking them with awkward spoken interludes.

It would take 15 years and one Steven Morrissey to briefly revive her hip appeal, when in 1984 she covered The Smiths’ hit, “Hand in Glove”, with the band as her backing musicians. “Fame is a double-edged sword and people don't know the pitfalls,” Shaw said recently. “Yet, worryingly, people crave fame more then ever. There's this feeling today that you're not real unless you're seen on TV.”