Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops

The lead song of The Spangle Maker was recorded at Rooster in London in early 1984, with Raymonde on bass for the first time; an earlier demo from before he joined appeared on a cassette compilation that year. The title may nod to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The band have never explained the words, which are mostly unintelligible. It reached twenty-nine in Britain, the band's highest singles placing, topped the indie chart and was heavily played on radio, and the BBC twice invited them onto Top of the Pops. They refused; Raymonde said later they should have done it, but it was too scary.

The video, their first, was directed by John Scarlett-Davis and filmed by Nigel Grierson in the chapel of the old Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water. The band disliked it; Raymonde felt it turned them into a stereotype. The upload in the hypersongs web is that video, which uses the shorter single edit. It was in their set from 1984 to 1986, and it has been used in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Halston and The Bear. In 2026 The Guardian ranked it first among their songs.