Wonderful life is one of those songs you're never quite sure is meant to be genuinely optimistic or bitterly ironic. As Colin Vearncombe, the singer-songwriter better known as Black, fills me in on a few biographical details, it soon becomes clear what his intention was. "By the end of 1985 I had been in a couple of car crashes, my mother had had a serious illness, I had been dropped by a record company, my first marriage went belly-up and I was homeless. Then I sat down and wrote this song called Wonderful Life. I was being sarcastic. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to sing sarcastically. What people heard were words of possibility and the bittersweet element."
However people interpreted it, the combination of Vearncombe's poetic lyrics and plaintive voice clearly did something for them. Flying off record shelves in its millions, the song quickly established itself as a radio-friendly classic and a favourite of advertising executives looking for something classy and life-affirming to help shift a few cars. Vearncombe remains mystified by the song's popularity, but says he has much to thank it for. "It's quite extraordinary. It's given me a calling card to most places in the world, certainly in Europe. I haven't met a single person who doesn't know the song. No one knows who wrote or sang it, but I always fancied the money over the fame anyway. The song has effectively bought me a second chance."
Despite being without a record deal for the last ten years, Vearncombe continues to write and release material with a passion. Now married with three sons and living in West Cork, life has clearly improved for him since his traumatic 20s. Like many an introspective singer-songwriter before him, though, Vearncombe discovered that fame brought its own, unique problems. "That was when the trouble really began," he says. "It's a weird world, but when things are going well, it gets even weirder. You're never ready for the kind of rubbish that's going to get thrown at you."
When Wonderful Life took off, Vearncombe, who had been writing songs from the age of 15, suddenly found himself miming to it in TV studios all over the world. "I followed this song everywhere because it was my baby. It rolled round from country to country, right the way through Europe, Australia, everywhere except America. The net result is that you have no social life and you lose touch with your friends." At the height of his fame, he even found himself swapping showbiz pleasantries with Jimmy Savile after a young fan got to go running with him on Jim'll Fix It. (Vearncombe is a keen runner - "I particularly like running in the rain or snow".) "It was one of the more bizarre experiences of my life," he laughs. "We couldn't have run more than 50 metres all together, me and this painfully shy little girl. It's very strange taking part in these things that you've seen on TV for years and years."
Dropped by his record label in the early 90s, Vearncombe began releasing music independently in 1993 - then stopped for six years. "I was working all the time, but I just didn't release anything," he explains. "I think with hindsight I was probably depressed. I had this growing sense of feeling there was no place for me in the business any more. I could see what was going on and I didn't like it at all." Buoyed up by the birth of his children, he set about releasing music through his own website in 1999 - and has now entered into the most happy, stable and prolific phase of his career. He may not boast millions of listeners any more, but a discerning chunk of those who splashed out on Wonderful Life are still hooked by his angelic voice - a higher, but no less awesome, version of Scott Walker's.
Making the most of his current status as a cult live performer, he has little time to lament his "career in reverse". "The problem with being in the position that I'm in is that I'm actually better than I've ever been but the wrong age. I occasionally get jealous but I have to remember what a miserable experience I had with fame. I'm more philosophical and happy than I've ever been. I'm at the top of my game."
Colin Vearncombe is at The Brook, Southampton on Sunday. Tickets cost GBP 7. Box office: 023 8055 5366.