The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York (Stiff)

Just the very thing, you might think, to slap on if you're feeling tired, emotional and melancholy of a Christmas Eve is a slab of Shane MacGowan groaning charmingly off-key, lonely and drowning (literally, probably) in has sorrows as he props his weary body over his winnings on the horses. But not quite. Up pops Kirsty MacColl (whose dad wrote "Dirty Old Town" for the Pogues), along with a pile of accordions and what not and together they enter into a spirited duel, with Kirsty chucking insults such as "You scumbag/You maggot/You cheap lousy faggot." Quite magnificent. (Lola Borg, Smash Hits, December 2, 1987)

Kirsty MacColl - He's On The Beach (Stiff)

A sad tale from Kirsty about a boy who takes off on holiday and ends up in Australia. Still, he's happy there. Kirsty will be happy too when the single marches up the charts. It's even better than "A New England", more bouncy and with a chorus that stays in your brain after just one listen. (Anne Lambert, No 1, June 15, 1985)

Even though Kirsty wrote this herself it sounds very like her last single, Billy Bragg's "A New England" - lots of shiny guitars above which a million Kirsty MacColls breathlessly sing the tune. I just don't quite understand why she's bothered to write a song about an old drinking partner who's gone to Australia, spends all his time on the beach and isn't coming back. (Chris Heath, Smash Hits, June 19, 1985)

The lovely Kirsty is always worth a lot of anybody's time. Her appreciation of the finer aspects of pop construction are enough to warm even the coldest discaphile's heart. All the usual ingredients are there - sometime bittersweet but ultimately optimistic lyric, hefty, pacey backbeat, just the right amount of memorable jangling and those trebly harmonised vocals. A tribute to lost love? A yearning for sunnier climes? A summer hit? All these, and more. (Graham K Smith, Record Mirror, June 15, 1985)

Kirsty MacColl - Terry (Stiff)

Kirsty McColl wrote and originally recorded 'They Don't Know'. Kirsty doesn't pull as many faces as Tracey Ullman but she possesses a sly wit and Tracey's love of low-rent '60s rockers. 'Terry' - not the old Twinkle song - is a predictable rocker with a tongue in its head but no other distinguishing features. People don't seem to be called Terry anymore but I suppose fashion can be unkind to names as well as singers. (Mark Cooper, No 1, November 5, 1983)

She is the talented songwriter that wrote Tracey Ullman's last hit and so rightly deserves one in her own right. (Jools Holland and The Panel, Smash Hits, November 24, 1983)

Matchbox (Featuring Kirsty MacColl) - I Want Out (Magnet)

There's not many rock 'n' roll acts who are worse than Shakin' Stevens but here's one. Nevertheless, this is saved by a real rootsy-tootsy vocal from Kirsty who once had a hit about a chippy or something. (Ian Birch, Smash Hits, February 17, 1983)

English people trying to be redneck Americans, nearly as embarrassing as Kajagoogoo's imitation of a vibrant new pop group. (Jim Reid, Record Mirror, February 12, 1983)