Fools in Love

Jackson wrote Fools in Love while he was still musical director for the cabaret act Koffee'n'Kreme, before the Joe Jackson Band existed. In A Cure for Gravity he describes it as a rebellion against the schmaltz he was playing every night, and as the point where his own style began. It sets the language of romance against a cynic's view of it, over a reggae bassline he hoped sounded faintly menacing.

It is the eighth track on Look Sharp! and was issued as a single only in the Netherlands, in June 1979, with Throw It Away on the B-side. It did not chart, though it reached nine on the American college radio chart. AllMusic's Steve Huey singled out its caustic but charming wit.

Jackson called it a song people like to hear live, and it grew on stage: from four and a half minutes at the BBC Peel session in February 1979 to nearly eight at Hammersmith Odeon in August 1982, where the Night and Day band turned it into a long percussion-driven piece. Those versions are on At the BBC and Live 1980/86, and the 1980 Cologne performance is on Live at Rockpalast. Inara George recorded it in 2005, and Curtis Stigers has played it live.