When aspiring pop music producer and mainstream record executive, Pete Waterman heard the tune playing in a record shop, he realised its hit potential, and brought a copy of the song to the major Magnet label, who were promoting big-name commercial pop acts like Alvin Stardust and Guys and Dolls. Magnet approached DIP and licensed the single, bringing it straight into the UK charts in March 1975. Cadogan was duly summoned to London for an appearance on Top of The Pops, complete with an Afro-wig and coloured contact lenses.
As ‘Hurt So Good’ leapt to a number four position on the UK pop charts, Perry flew to London to confront his budding starlet, who was now in league with Magnet, the company who reaped the most from the tune after acquiring it from DIP.
“Magnet said that they need me to sign this contract”, Cadogan explains, “they put me in a hotel, they did everything for me. I remember Perry coming to my hotel room, he walk up and down and ask if I sign anything with these people. I say, ‘No I haven’t, but I have to sign something with them, they say they own the record’. I remember he held my wrist and said, ‘If you sign that thing I’m going to make sure you never get a cent!’ and I was annoyed.”
As Magnet had flown her to London and were paying for her living expenses, Cadogan felt she had no other option. Young and inexperienced, she signed a contract that was definitely not in her favour:
“I got £3,000 on signing with Magnet, and every statement I ever got from them, they excluded ‘Hurt So Good’ from it. That one money I got, that was it, and out of all the royalties they were getting, they paid all my airfare, my hotel bills, my clothes, food and everything, so I was always in debt. I remember Magnet bought Pete Waterman a Jaguar for finding ‘Hurt So Good’, and they said that I couldn’t drive so they wouldn’t bother give me one.”