Flashback: Mel & Kim's Respectable was Number 1 in the UK 30 years ago this week

"Tay, Tay, Tay, Tay, T-t, T-t, T, Tay, Tay, Take or leave us, only please believe us, we ain't ever gonna be respectable..." This week, the song that defined what it meant to give zero f**ks, Mel & Kim's Respectable, celebrates 30 years since it reached Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart.

The track not only provided the London-born duo - made up of sisters Melanie and Kim Appleby - with their first Number 1 single, it also gave one of the most successful production partnerships of all time behind the song, Stock Aitken Waterman, the first Official Number 1 they’d both written and produced, too.

In the true spirit of the track, Kim recalls how the song came about after Mel's nude modelling photos were leaked to the papers. "Mike [Stock] and the boys came up with this title when Mel's nude modelling photos were splashed all over the tabloids," she said. "We knew it was just a matter of time before they would surface, just didn't think it would happen so quickly! 

"Mel and I went to see Pete [Waterman] to warn him about the pictures and what was about to come out. Pete, being Pete, turned to Mel and said, 'Kid, just tell me there are no animals involved!' We all laughed so much!"

MORE: Mel & Kim's complete Official UK Chart history

Respectable initially debuted at Number 25 in the UK's Official Singles Chart upon its release in February 1987, leaping up the Top 40 to reach Number 1 three weeks later. It became one of the biggest selling hits of that year, shifting over half a million copies in the UK as well as reaching the top of the charts in The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.

"After having a big hit with Showing Out [(Get Fresh at the Weekend) the previous September], the industry was wondering and waiting to see if we could follow it up," Kim explained. "Respectable was to give us and Stock Aitken and Waterman our first Number 1 in the UK and went on to be a bigger international success than Showing Out..., giving us a Number 1 song in the American dance charts."

Mel and Kim went on to enjoy two more Top 10 singles before their career was cut tragically short; not long after Respectable's success, Mel was diagnosed with spinal cancer and sadly passed away on January 18, 1990. She was 23 years old.

"I like to think that Mel and I were among the pioneers of the Stock Aitken Waterman sound," says Kim. "We also gave them their first written and produced Number 1, which remains special to me up until this day."

Elsewhere in the Official Singles Chart 30 years ago this week, Mel & Kim had knocked Boy George's debut solo single Everything I Own down to Number 2, and U2's With Or Without You became their fourth Top 10 hit, landing at Number 4. 

Further down, Janet Jackson's Let's Wait Awhile hit the Top 10, Peter Gabriel was new at 15 with the third single from his So album, Big Time, and Tina Turner's What You Get Is What You See - the biggest UK hit from her 1986 Break Every Rule album - reached its peak at Number 30.

Check out the Official Singles Chart Top 40 from this week in 1987

Listen to the UK Top 40 from this week in 1997 below and subscribe to our weekly Flashback playlist on Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music.