Claire Richards has reflected on the song that started it all for Steps: 1997’s 5,6,7,8 – a track that even the band themselves spent years trying to avoid.

Considering it never made the Top 10, it was a mammoth hit; and paved the way for a long career that spawned many (far, far better) pop classics.

In a new retrospective for The Guardian, Claire said: “5,6,7,8 is quite confused. I think the techno element was an attempt to make line-dancing cool, and the lyric strikes me as two British writers trying to write about all the moves at a barn dance.

“Apart from Pete [Waterman], the producers didn’t want to be there. They thought 5,6,7,8 was going to die on its backside.”

She’s actually quoted as saying the song was the UK’s best-selling single of 1997, which isn’t true – I assume she was either mistaken or misquoted – but the fact remains that the school disco classic was an absolute monster.

“We spent years trying not to perform 5,6,7,8. We even had giant models made of our heads, like on TFI Friday, and got dancers to do it as us,” she said.

“But, for the 20th anniversary, we threw everything at it. Swinging saloon doors, cowboy hats, hot pants – it was brilliant. We’ve made peace with the song.”

Pete Waterman also spoke about it, revealing: “I played the demo of 5,6,7,8 to my co-producers, who hated it. They thought I’d lost my marbles.

“Their reaction was: ‘Oh my God, we want a hit, but not at this price.’ It was so bad that they all said: ‘We’re not putting our name on that.’

“That’s why, if you look at the credits of the song, there’s only one name listed as producer – and that’s mine.” Read the full thing here.

Steps are currently promoting their excellent new single To The Beat Of My Heart, the third official cut from What The Future Holds.