How it feels to have a hit: H20 frontman on 'I Dream To Sleep' at 40

The group's debut single, 'I Dream To Sleep', entered the top 20 on the UK chart and they were suddenly on Top of the Pops, where Elton John sang it to them backstage.

A new version of the song is being released on Friday to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and for the man behind it its success is still hard to fathom.

Mr Donaldson tells The Herald: "I can’t believe I’m sitting talking about it 40 years later. I remember vividly I was watching Top of the Pops on a Thursday night and Yazoo were on and did ‘Only You’.

“I remember sitting thinking, ‘That’s deceptively simple, that’s a good tune’. So I wrote the lyric down in 15 minutes, took it into the rehearsal room and worked on it with Ross Alcock who was the keyboard player and my writing partner.

“Honestly, half an hour later the song was finished. It was as quick as that.

“To be sitting thinking that it still matters all these years later... a lot of my friends haven’t made it this far as musicians and here I am talking about something I did 40 years ago.

"I’m watching David Bowie and Bryan Ferry as a kid and then 10 years later there I am standing on the same stage singing my own song.

“There are a few words which over over-used these days: ‘bizarre’ is one and ‘surreal’ is another.

“But both are the only way to describe what happened. It’s incredible, working class boys from Govan managing to clamber up through all of that and get to something like Top of the Pops and have a hit record.

“I don’t know what the power to 10 would be when you think of all the people who have been in bands, sung songs and made records but when I look back I realise it was quite an achievement.”

When a song breaks beyond an artist's fanbase and enters the wider culture, there's not much say its creators can have.

Clint Boon, keyboard player for the Inspiral Carpets, has seen his band's biggest hit 'This Is How It Feels' become a terrace anthem across the UK and appear in films like 'The World's End'.

Read More: Inspiral Carpets on death, rebirth, Noel Gallagher and Glasgow love

He told the Herald: "As the man who wrote that song it’s like my 30-year-old child going out there and having all this fun.

“I’m not necessarily part of it anymore, I can’t control it. It’s my 34-year-old baby having a laugh on the football terraces every weekend!

“Whether it be United, City, Celtic, Rangers – they’re all singing it. Leeds United were using it a couple of years ago, I think it was used at the cricket when someone was bowled out.

“It shows the power of music, that you can write something like that which is quite a down song if you look at the subject matter – suicide, infidelity, mental health – and for that to become a triumphant terrace anthem… how did that happen? It’s incredible.

“I’m not complaining, I love seeing the journey that it’s been on and I’m sure it’s not over yet."

It's something that rings true for Mr Donaldson about his own signature tune.

Ian Donaldson, formerly of H20 (Image: Sonic PR)

He says: "It does become… not public property, people don’t own it, but they’ve adopted it which is a different thing altogether.

“To give you an example, the last time I played was maybe about six months ago. A couple of about the same age came in to watch the soundcheck, and I went over and said hello to this guy Jim and his wife.

“We got chatting and he said he’d never seen H20 so he was hoping to come along tonight and hear some of the old songs.

“The guy went to the toilet and his wife said, ‘he doesn’t want me to tell you this, but that’s the song he wants played at his funeral’.

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“Many bands have had more success than H20 ever did, but as a song it’s genuinely loved."

For some bands, playing your biggest hit can become a chore over time. Kurt Cobain famously resented playing 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', while Billy Joel has described 'We Didn't Start The Fire' as "terrible".

For Mr Donaldson though, performing 'I Dream To Sleep' will never stick in his craw.

Whenever I play it live… there’s this old phrase that ‘you could feel the love in the room’ and that’s generally bulls*** but you can feel a special thing happens when that song gets played.

“I give it the utmost respect, because I remember Donny Osmond in the 80s tried to toughen up his image and do something different and I remember him saying in an interview that he was playing at some theatre in Cambridge and he performed ‘Puppy Love’ and really took the Mickey out of it, really sent it up.

“When he went out the door of the theatre after there was a woman standing there and she went: ‘how dare you, Donnie? I love that song and you just made a mess of it. I find it unforgiveable’.

“The point I’m trying to make is that whenever I do any of these songs I always do it properly, it’s not cabaret, or a comfortable night, or a bit of banter or anything like that.

“I really make sure the band and myself make it as fresh as it can possibly be.”