The Collection 1977-1982

The Collection 1977-1982 is a compilation album by The Stranglers. It was released in September 1982 to complete their contract with EMI, who had acquired the band’s back catalogue on the United Artists and Liberty labels. The album collected together several of the bands most popular singles and album tracks, and also included a “new” track, “Strange Little Girl”.

The inclusion of “Strange Little Girl” was an ironic move on the band’s part: EMI had been very indifferent to the band when they acquired their catalogue the previous year, not regarding them as a great commercial proposition. The band proved them wrong by having an enormous hit single with “Golden Brown”, despite lack-lustre promotion from EMI. When required to deliver a final single, the band re-recorded the song “Strange Little Girl”, which they had originally been on a demo tape they had given to EMI in 1974. EMI rejected the tape at the time, but the re-recorded “Strange Little Girl” went on to be a top 10 hit.

A companion VHS video was released to accompany the album, containing promo clips for several of the band’s songs. This was later released on DVD.