FRANK Sinatra famously sang about a “city that doesn’t sleep” in his ode to New York. The Doors immortalised the “City of Night” in L.A. Woman. The Kinks waxed lyrical about the beauty of London in Waterloo Sunset, and The Beatles got all nostalgic about Liverpool on Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane.

Yet these songs are all about cities. This makes the fact that a small market town like Abergavenny had a song written about it in the late 1960s by a well-established recording artist all the more unique.

Most of us are familiar with Marty Wilde’s breezy and bouncy pop song that put the town on the music map.

The question remains, is Abergavenny the only town in the UK to have a song written in its honour?

The answer is no, but it’s a very rare occurrence, and for our money, the song is definitely the best of the bunch. Let’s take a look at the other contenders.

We kick off with a track made famous by Simon & Garfunkel called Scarborough Fair. It’s actually a traditional English folk ballad about someone remembering a lost love they once knew in the Yorkshire seaside town. It’s also a bit wishy-washy, and Bob Dylan vastly improved it when he adapted the melody and lyrics for Girl from the North Country.

Next up is the Bells of Rhymney. On the face of it, the song with words written by Welsh poet Idris Davies, fits the bill perfectly.

Yet the lyrics that were brought to life by Pete Seeger and later The Byrds were less about Rhymney as a place and more about a coal mining disaster and the 1926 General Strike. It also name checks the bells of Blaina, Newport, Merthyr, and many other Welsh towns, so we’ll rule this one out.

Half-Man, Half-Biscuit once wrote a song called 'What Is Chatteris…'Which celebrates the English market town’s commendable one-way system, town hall band’s CD, and first-class cake shop, but the Scouse songbirds are relative unknowns, so we’ll discount them and any other entries we haven’t got the space or inclination to discuss.

And so, as rare as songs about UK towns are, the winner by a country mile has to be Mary Wilde’s Abergavenny!

Just like Detroit Rock City by Kiss, London Calling by The Clash, and Ferry Cross the Mersey by Gerry and the Pacemakers, the song Abergavenny is all about taking a trip to a promised land, and really only a town like Aber could fit the bill.

For example, in what strange universe would taking a tip to Talgarth be a thing?

Would a trip to Monmouth not be more of an excursion? And as for Crickhowell, wouldn’t a visit simply suffice?

A trip suggests something otherworldly and magical, and Marty captures it beautifully in just under three minutes of pop purity and swagger.

Can you imagine a song called “I Left my Heart in Ebbw Vale” Or “Merthyr Tydfil (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair?) No! You couldn’t, and perhaps you shouldn’t. But thanks to Marty, we don’t need to imagine a song about Abergavenny, we’ve already got one.