Story of the song: The Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy

The Boys Are Back in Town” has been a godsend to advertisers and headline writers. Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy's frontman, conceived the anthem in the mid-Seventies. The war in Vietnam had just ended, which gave Lynott an idea for a song. He came up with a good title, “GI Joe's Back in Town”, after David Breger's comic-strip hero. Lynott played it to the band's drummer, Brian Downey, and guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson. It went down well, but the military allusion didn't seem right.

Lynott had always been drawn to the image of the outlaw. He recalled the Quality Street Gang, a Sixties Manchester organised-crime outfit, from the time his mother, Phyllis, ran a hotel there. He'd hit on the perfect theme. “The Boys Are Back in Town” had just the right ring for his story: “Friday night they'll be dressed to kill / Down at Dino's bar and grill / The drink will flow and the blood will spill.” Musically, though, Lynott was having trouble pinning the song down. The band tried it every which way, without success. Then their producer, John Alcock, had a thought. He'd heard “Kitty's Back”, a Bruce Springsteen tune which had a neat bass line.

Alcock suggested a melodic twin-guitar lick, loosely based on the Springsteen riff. Lynott’s bass rumbled, Gorham and Robertson threw in some power chords and they were done. The song formed the backbone to Jailbreak, the band's 1976 landmark sixth album. When the tapes were delivered to Phonogram, however, the label couldn’t hear a hit among the nine tracks. Thin Lizzy were sent by their management to America and made the song a hit there first. When the song was released, it reached No 8 in the UK and No 1 in Ireland. In 1999, Happy Mondays took a shambolic version into the Top 30. Its place in the language of popular culture, as well as rock history, was secured.