Respectable Street

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=November 2018}}

{{Infobox song

| name = Respectable Street

| cover = Respectable Street.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| type = single

| artist = XTC

| album = Black Sea

| released = {{start date|df=yes|1981|3}}

| format =

| recorded = 1980

| studio = Townhouse Studios, London

| venue =

| genre = * Post-punk{{cite web|last1=Schabe|first1=Patrick|title=The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul|url=https://www.popmatters.com/the-man-who-sailed-around-his-soul-2495729988.html|website=PopMatters|date=27 October 2006|quote=1980's Black Sea sold well on the album charts on the strength of its solid post-punk tracks, including "Respectable Street", "Towers of London", and "Generals and Majors".}}

• pop{{cite book|title=33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute - A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999|first=Mike|last=Segretto|date=2022|chapter= 1982|pages= 414–415|publisher=Backbeat|isbn=9781493064601|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jtNtEAAAQBAJ}}

| length = * 3:37 (album version)

• 3:07 (single version)

| label = Virgin

| writer = Andy Partridge

| producer = Steve Lillywhite

| prev_title = Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)

| prev_year = 1980

| title =

| next_title = Senses Working Overtime

| next_year = 1982

}}

"Respectable Street" is a song written by Andy Partridge of XTC, released as the opening track on their 1980 album Black Sea. According to Partridge, the song is about English streets and "the hypocrisy of living in a so-called respectable neighborhood. It's all talk behind twitching curtains. It's all Alan Bennett land." In another interview Partridge reveals that Respectable Street was based on a real street Bowood Road in Swindon, which was diagonally opposite the flat above a shop on Kingshill Road where he was living at the time he wrote it.{{Cite book |last=Partridge |first=Andy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/900032028 |title=Complicated game : inside the songs of XTC |date=2016 |others=Todd Bernhardt |isbn=978-1-908279-78-1 |edition=1st |location=London |page=110 |oclc=900032028}} Discounting the Canada-only "Love at First Sight", it was the fourth and last single issued from the LP. BBC Radio banned the song because of its references to abortion and a "Sony Entertainment Centre".{{cite web|last1=Bernhardt|first1=Todd|first2=Andy|last2=Partridge|authorlink2=Andy Partridge|title=Andy discusses 'Respectable Street'|url=http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20070226.html|website=Chalkhills|date=26 February 2007}}