Lavender

Lavender is a short track on Misplaced Childhood that runs into Bitter Suite, which repeats its musical motif at the end. Some verses recall the folk song Lavender's Blue. Like Kayleigh it is a love song, but it recalls the innocence of childhood. Its opening lines deliberately echo Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns. It features a traditional grand piano. Kelly plays a Bechstein in the video, though the album sleeve notes credit a Bosendorfer.

It runs 3:40 on the 7-inch against 2:27 on the album, and 4:18 as Lavender Blue on the 12-inch. The B-side was Freaks. It entered the British chart on 7 September 1985, reached five and spent nine weeks there, and remains the band's second highest charting song. It appeared in the first episode of the BBC Three series Nighty Night in 2004. Hogarth played it on his first tour with the band in 1989.