BARACK Obama's George/Jeffrey Osborne gaffe has caused much hilarity this week, but it will be no laughing matter if this leads to On The Wings Of Love choking the airwaves.

Back In 1982 when this saccharine ditty made the UK charts - number 11 pop fans, and that's NOT 11 Downing Street - I remember that for a nightmarish few weeks, you could barely switch on a radio without being bombarded by this three or four minutes of overbearing, slushy nonsense.

This being the early 1980s, there was a great deal of overbearing, slushy nonsense in the charts and on the radio, mind you. But this was perhaps the most overbearing, the slushiest, the most nonsensical of the lot.

And here are a few overbearing, slushy and nonsensical bits, in no particular order: "Just smile for me and let the day begin, You are the sunshine that lights my heart within..."

Whaaat!?! Like I said, nonsensical.

"You look at me and I begin to melt, Just like the snow when a ray of sun is felt..."

See, the slushiest - although I meant metaphorically, rather than literally.

"I'm crazy 'bout ya baby can't you see I'd be delighted if you would come with me..."

And overbearing. Run girls, run!

Jeffrey, you see, is very fond is love, and very keen to tell the world about it.

On the imaginatively titled Ultimate Collection, a Best of Jeff album, seven of the 17 songs have the word 'love' in the title. Love Ballad, We Both Deserve Each Other's Love, the aforementioned On The Wings Of Love, The Last Time I Made Love... You get the picture.

The other 10 tracks are, I suspect, about love too. Holding On, Stay With Me Tonight, You Should Be Mine, We're Going All The Way, etc, etc... Just an educated guess.

That's a lot of love. And that's not a song on the Ultimate Collection by the way, just a phrase of mine.

Quite how the President of the United States of America managed to confuse a lovestruck/lovelorn/love hungry/love er, loving (delete where applicable) songwriter with the Chancellor of the Exchequer is beyond me - but The Most Powerful Man In The World has surely done us a great disservice.

He may be a big fan of Jeffrey, but we don't need this right now. Summer already appears to be over, and all we have left to console us is a 30-odd year old power ballad.