"Precious" is a song composed by Paul Weller and performed by the British band The Jam. It appears on The Jam's 1982 album The Gift and also as a double A-Side single along with "Town Called Malice". It reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, although the song received much less airplay than "Town Called Malice". It was a departure for the band from their punk and mod roots, involving a funk-like sound that the band had not previously explored. Some fans and critics have noticed the song contains a number of similarities to "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag", which was a relatively new release itself at the time. Weller himself was to admit in 1998 he had indeed used this song as part of the inspiration for Precious.