The Gift

The songs were largely recorded between late 1981 and early 1982 at George Martin's AIR Studios, with Peter Wilson assisting. The album moves toward Northern soul, funk bass lines, wah-wah guitar, and brass and saxophone, most noticeably on Precious. Trans-Global Express is based on World Column's Northern soul track So Is the Sun. Only two songs run past three and a half minutes.

The cover shows the band on a roof near Oxford Street, each posed to suggest the title of Running on the Spot, with the photographs tinted red, amber and green like traffic lights. The first copies came with a paper bag printed The Jam... A Gift. The tour that followed was called the Trans-Global Unity Express.

The Gift reached number one in the UK and spent 25 weeks on the chart. In the United States it spent 16 weeks on the Billboard 200 and peaked at 82 in May 1982. A two-disc deluxe edition marked its 30th anniversary in 2012.