Simply Red is an English pop band emphasizing genres ranging from reggae rock, New Romantic, and Jazz. Perhaps the band’s biggest source of inspiration is soul music. They frequently cite monolith artists like Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye as influences, having incorporated many of their recording techniques into their sound.
Before lead singer Mike Hucknall formed Simply Red he was in a punk band called the Frantic Elevators. This project was largely spawned as a reaction to the inspirational 1976 Manchester Sex Pistol’s concert of which members of the Fall, the Smiths, and Joy Division were also in attendance. The group had a 7 year career, but never broke into the mainstream; however, their final single “Holding Back the Years” was a critical sensation and was revived by Hucknall’s new group Simply Red.
Simply Red was assembled by both Hucknall and manager Elliot Rashman. Hucknall acted as the key creative figure behind the project acting in conjunction with a variety of session and touring musicians. The harsher textures and barren structures of Hucknall’s punk group seemed to be flipped inside out with Simply Red. The sound typified by this project was lushly produced and exhibited a certain smoothness heard from artists like Barry White, The Temptations, and even crooners like Tom Jones.
In addition to Hucknall, the lineup was initially comprised of keyboardist Fritz McIntyre and ex-The Drutti Column band mates: bassist Tony Bowers, brass player Tim Kellett, and drummer Chris Joyce.
The band signed a record deal with Elektra and released two singles “Red Box” and The Valentine Brother’s cover “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)”. The latter single was a worldwide commercial success and entered the UK and Irish Top 20. It also appeared on the band’s studio debut “Picture Book” along with the Talking Head’s cover “Heaven” and a revamping of “Holding Back the Years”, which went on to top the Irish charts and place at No. 2 on the UK charts.
Simply Red’s 2nd studio album saw release in 1987 and adopted a cleaner, sophisticated soul sound. The standout single “The Right Thing” was another boost in the band’s career, reaching #11 on the UK and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band’s shift towards sophisticated pop was becoming even more evident with their cover of Cole Porter’s jazz-pop standard “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye”.
By the time the group released their third album “A New Flame”, it seemed that they were striving to take the charts by storm even if that meant risking artistic experimentation. Their leap into the homogeny of adult-contemporary seemed to be an advantageous career move. They scored another No.1 hit with their cover of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and established themselves as one of the biggest pop acts in the UK.
When Simply Red’s next album “Stars” was released in 1991 the band didn’t necessarily identify as a band. Rather Simply Red was perceived as the music project of Hucknall. At this point most of the original members of the group had left including Bowers and Joyce who were replaced with Shaun Ward and Gota Yashiki. Despite the major reconstruction in the line up “Stars” proved to be the most commercially successful album of Simply Red’s career, becoming the best selling album in Europe for 2 years and producing a whopping 5 Top 40 singles in the UK.
Simply Red saw their first UK No. 1 single with “Fairground”, which spearheaded the release of their 1995 studio album “Life”. This record became a massive hit as well and was documented as the 4th best selling album in the UK at the time. A greatest hits collection followed in 1996, featuring the Aretha Franklin cover “Angel” on which the neo-soul group the Fugees made an appearance. The trend of releasing covers clearly seemed to work for the group and in 1998 they put out the album “Blue”, which contained revisions of Neil Young, Albert Hammond, and Gregory Isaacs tracks.
The album “Love and Russian Winter” followed a year later, but did not produce any significant hits (at least comparative to their prior releases). Though the group continued to tour they delayed album production for a while (which can possibly be attributed to their expulsion from East West Records).
Simply Red’s next studio album “Home” came out in 2003 and went Platinum twice over in the UK and reached Gold status in many other countries. 2005’s “Simplified” consisted primarily of re-workings of the group’s older material, but also contained 4 newly written songs as well as a cover of Leon Russell’s “My Perfect Love”. “Stay” came out 2 years later, reaching gold status in the UK, Poland, and Italy. One year later the band offered another retrospect of their career, releasing their second greatest hits album “Simply Red 25: The Greatest Hits”.
James Morrison
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