The left-field pop hit is one of the many things I love about music. Not a novelty song, mind you, so let’s subtract “Gangham Style” and “Macarena,” but a single that colors outside the lines of the reigning sound and yet amazingly manages to resonate with the mainstream.

This week in 1987 provides a perfect example, when British trio Swing Out Sister peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the jazzy, irresistibly upbeat “Breakout.” Corinne Drewery, Andy Connell, and Martin Jackson also scored a #1 Adult Contemporary hit with the song, forever sandwiched in history between Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” and Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes’ Dirty Dancing duet, “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life.”

“Breakout” is taken from Swing Out Sister’s debut album, It’s Better To Travel, which was reissued in July as a deluxe 25th anniversary 2-CD set. Interviewed by Super Deluxe Edition for the occasion, Connell recalled this about the against-all-odds success of “Breakout”:

“It’s the only time I felt that we’d have a hit. Nobody else did though. I came home and I said to everyone we knew, ‘If that’s not a hit, we will never have a hit.’ It’s the only time I’ve ever been so sure of something. The record company said, ‘It’s nice, but it’s not what they are playing on the radio’ — but radio loved it for exactly that reason. The label even took ‘Breakout’ to a top producer in the U.S. and as a consultant, he came back with a report saying, ‘That snare drum will never work in the United States.'”

But that snare drum — and those bright, brassy horns — did snare Swing Out Sister a top 10 hit here in the U.S. and in their native UK. “Breakout” also garnered them a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, and supported by second single, “Twilight World” (#31), the trio also earned a nod for Best New Artist. Respectively, the trio lost to Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes and Jody Watley (with whom Swing Out Sister shared a manager).

Jackson left Swing Out Sister in 1989, with Connell and Drewery carrying on to this day, recording and touring (they’ve got a dedicated fanbase and are huge in Japan).

Swing Out Sister’s last worldwide hit arrived five years after the success of “Breakout,” when the now-duo covered “Am I The Same Girl,” previously recorded by Barbara Acklin and Dusty Springfield. In the U.S., they scored their second #1 Adult Contemporary hit and peaked just outside the top 40 at #45. The single’s B-side was a remix of “Breakout.”

Purchase Swing Out Sister – “Breakout” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.