La Folie and success of Golden Brown

La Folie (1981) was another concept album, this time exploring the subject of love. At first La Folie charted lower than any other Stranglers studio album, and the first single taken from it, “Let Me Introduce You to the Family”, only charted at No. 42. However, the next single was ” Golden Brown “. The song is an evocative waltz-time ballad, with an extra beat in the fourth bar. Cornwell said the lyrics were “about heroin and also about a girl. She was of Mediterranean origin and her skin was golden brown.” It became their biggest hit, charting at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart . It was also named as “record of the week” on BBC Radio 2 , despite the station not previously playing music associated with the punk genre. It remains a radio staple to this day. Following this success, La Folie recharted at No. 11 in the UK Albums Chart. ” Tramp ” was originally thought to be the ideal follow-up single to “Golden Brown” but “La Folie” was chosen after Burnel convinced his bandmates of its potential. Sung in French, it received negligible airplay and charted at No. 47. Shortly afterwards the Stranglers left EMI. As part of their severance deal, the Stranglers were forced to release a greatest hits collection, The Collection 1977–1982 . The track listing for The Collection 1977–1982 included the new single ” Strange Little Girl “, which had originally been recorded on a demo in 1974 and rejected by EMI. It became a hit, charting at No. 7 in July 1982 and providing royalties to Wärmling through his co-writing credit.