Simply Red 'Lady Godiva's Room' (from Montreux EP)

Chart Peak: 11
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'Lady Godiva's Room' was one of the tracks on Simply Red's Montreux EP... I teas the last of five 1992 chart singles following 'For Your Babies', 'Wonderland', 'Thrill Me' and 'Your Mirror'.

The Montreux EP was of course so-called because it was recorded at the well-known Swiss jazz festival. Strangely, although the group performed a full-length set (available as a bonus DVD on some re-issues of the Stars album) with several of their hits, only four tracks were released at the time and three of them were cover versions. Well, OK, Simply Red doing cover versions isn't that unusual (the aforementioned Stars was one of their few all-original albums) but that wasn't the most obvious commercial move. 'Lady Godiva's Room' was the only original song on the release and even then it was a B-side from several years earlier, which would be the second time Mick Hucknall went back to the B-side cupboard: 1988's single 'I Won't Feel Bad' had been the flipside to the original release of 'Holding Back The Years' three years before.  'Lady Godiva's Room' was also the fourth track in the sequence, although it was the promoted track from the EP, even getting a proper video. I'm not sure how they expected to recoup that from a single that wasn't even promoting an album, but they would have had plenty in the bank from Stars.

Perhaps the surprise here is how good the track sounds now. I'm in the relatively small number of people who think Simply Red had already peaked by the end of the 80s, although of course this song was written by 1987. It has a mystique that is rare in Mick Hucknall's work and although it sounds similar to a few of his other songs of this era (possibly why it was only a B-side originally) it's one of his best compositions in my opinion. The lyric, with its continued refrain "the honeymoon is over" is more intriguing than his typical attempts to pastiche old soul songs or his sappy "socially conscious" stuff. Really this song was a bit too good to bury.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 7, 9, 20, 21, 23, 32, 33
Available on: Men And Women [Expanded] (studio version)

Simply Red 'The Right Thing'

Chart Peak: 11

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Charted at No. 45 on 10th February, had climbed to No. 15 by 24th February. 

A more modern type of soul now, although it goes without saying that Simply Red were heavily influenced by older music, hence the large number of cover versions in their repertoire. At this stage they were still considered at least slightly cool, although I was still getting them mixed up with Red Box (in my defence, Simply Red did actually release a single called 'Open Up The Red Box', which was unnecessarily confusing). That was presumably one of their political songs, but this first single from their second album is aimed firmly at the bedroom. Over a taut funk groove, Mick Hucknall is unsubtle but is beaten by backing singers who chant "Get off your back boy! Get on top now!"

It's pretty well done, but there's something a bit too OTT about it - it's jumping up and down a bit too much to be actually sexy and feels more like a pest that a seducer - maybe the protagonist is just taking his own attractiveness too much for granted. I don't think it's supposed to be threatening, but it's a bit unappealing. A pity, though, with a different lyric it could have been a better song that stood repeated listens, because the chorus is catchy and the band (as they still were at that time) are on good form. It's dated, but not as badly as might have been expected. Maybe it's just my personal dislike for this type of song that puts me off.

Also appearing on: 5, 7, 20, 21, 23, 24, 32, 33
Available on: Men And Women

Simply Red 'Never Never Love'

Chart Peak: 18

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Sometimes it's very hard to resist the single-sentence dismissal, along the lines of "I will never, never love this record". Indeed, his/their previous single 'Remembering The First Time' inspired one of my favourite ever such responses in a review on Teletext: "Not to be confused with Pulp's Do You Remember The First Time, or with any other decent record." I admit to adapting that line once or twice over the years.

Anyway, the final appearance of Mick Hucknall and his employees catches him in bland, time-serving mode, a far cry from the mildly triumphant return of 'Fairground'. Although the talk of "good revolution" hints at the politicised tone of some of the band's early work, it's all so vague and soppy as to be meaningless, and his vocal on the chorus is annoyingly thin on headphones. Not a great way to bow out, though worse singles were to come, and Hucknall's awful soul covers as a solo artist almost make you pine for this.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 7, 9, 20, 21, 23, 24, 32
Available on: The Greatest Hits

Simply Red 'Holding Back The Years'

Chart Peak: 2 [51 in 1985]

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Originally made No. 51 in November 1985 but it took until June 1986 before 'Holding Back The Years' finally made No. 2 for 2 weeks, becoming Simply Red's second Top 20 hit in Britain.

By coincidence, both A-Ha and Simply Red have recently completed long-trailled farewells; indeed Simply Red seem to have been splitting up for longer than I've been writing this blog but they seem to have been the tortoises here. After securing their place on Now 5 with the substantial hit 'Money'$ Too Tight To Mention' they missed the Top 50 three times and even after this they had to wait another six singles for a second Top 10. It's perhaps strange that the sleeve note doesn't mention one major reason why this track became a hit at the second time of asking - third if you count the original version by Hucknall's "punk" band Frantic Elevators - and rescued them from one-hit-wonderdom. For this is yet another US Number One single, although of course the Reds did eventually do what Genesis, Peter Gabriel and Bananarama couldn't by topping the British chart, but almost a decade later.

It's conventional to say that 'Holding Back The Years' is the acceptable face of Mick Hucknall, and generally, I'd be inclined to chisel away at that. To some extent I already have by revealing that I quite liked 'Fairground' after all, but I can't dispute that this is a good record. I can imagine that people who saw the band live - and they were really a band in those days - must have been utterly wowed by it. On record it suffers from a now rather dated production and of course from the sheer overexposure, but it's redeemed somewhat by what's probably Hucknall's best recorded vocal. Here's where I will slightly break from the consensus; people often say "the guy's a tit but you can't knock the voice," whereas I actually think his singing's got a lot worse over the years. He's in great form here though and does a good job of conveying regret. Perhaps he knew how many awful records he was going to inflict on us in the next 20 years.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 9, 20, 21, 23, 24, 32, 33
Available on: Classic Soul Anthems

Simply Red 'Something Got Me Started'

Chart Peak: 11

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While Mick Hucknall's in an apologising mood, perhaps he should say something about the hideous intro to his first hit in almost two years. One of the biggest-selling albums of the decade begins with a woman declaiming "I love you" and Hucknall creepily whispering "Show me!" Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Once that's out of the way, the song does improve significantly, though. It's one of the more dance-oriented tracks in the catalogue, which is usually preferable to the slowies. It's also one of the last works of Simply Red as an actual group rather than Hucknall and hired hands, although it was always clear who was in charge. It's no masterpiece, and the lyric and music don't entirely seem to fit but it's got some entertainment value and the call-and-response vocals with keyboard player Fritz McIntyre are memorable. The house piano parts that sound like they're being played with one finger (though for the benefit of any keyboardists reading this, I'm sure they're not) do date this track somewhat but they don't ruin it.

In fact, the middle of this record is about as good as the album's been so far. It's just a shame that the intro is so awful and the last thirty seconds seem to be more about making sure everyone knows the title of the song so they can buy it. And it still didn't make the Top 10.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 7, 9, 21, 23, 24, 32, 33
Available on: Stars

Simply Red 'Money'$ Too Tight (To Mention)'

Chart Peak: 13

YouTube

It feels strangely topical to be writing this post now. Not only for economic reasons, but because the seemingly endless Simply Red retirement, which seems to have been going on for longer than some bands' entire careers, is finally winding to a close, with a Greatest Hits album back in the midweek Top 10 thanks to ITV. Back in 1985, though, I don't think many people could have guessed from this successful debut single how enduring an institution Mick Hucknall and his employees would become. Admittedly, this hit didn't launch them on the fast-track to stardom:
their next three singles peaked at 66, 51 and 53.

Although I'd gleaned somewhere down the line that this was a cover version, I hadn't actually heard the Valentine Brothers' original until today - indeed, until fairly recently I'd assumed it was a much older song than it actually is. Actually, aside from dropping a verse, this version hasn't really reinvented the song all that much; the most notable shift of emphasis is that Hucknall seems to downplay the reference to the "almighty father", reading that line as if it's his literal parent. That and the "ad lib" at the end of "Did the earth move for you, Nancy?" which of course I didn't understand at the time. Still, he was in pretty fine voice back then and the record is a good pop track, even if it's too smoothly done to sound realistic.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 9, 20, 21, 23, 24, 32, 33
Available on: Picture Book (Collectors Edition)

Simply Red 'Fairground'

Chart Peak: 1 (4 weeks)

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Taking its inspiration from the Italian city of Milan, 'Fairground' hurtled into the UK chart at No.1 in late September '95 & stayed there for 4 weeks... incredibly it was Simply Red's 1st British chart-topping single. From CD/Tape "Life"

You can draw your own conclusions about how incredible it really is that they'd never topped the UK singles chart before (they'd managed it twice in the US). If anything, the more surprising discovery for me was that this is apparently the biggest-selling Simply Red single here as well as the highest-charting - I mean, you'd think it'd be 'Holding Back The Years' wouldn't you? With hindsight, this was about the last time I can remember actually liking a Simply Red single, albeit that I already felt like I shouldn't. Fortunately the next couple of singles after this put paid to any such dilemmas as they were so thoroughly rubbish I could completely honestly dislike them. In later years I went off this too.

What I didn't realise at the time was that the beat which is possibly the most distinctive part of the record is actually sampled from 'Give It Up' by The Goodmen, as Hucknall sort of acknowledges in the lyric "let's make amends like all good men should." In fact the small print in the Now 32 sleevenotes helpfully points out that the original source of the drum beat is 'Fanfarra' by Sergio Mendes which I'd never heard until now; the Goodmen added the hiccupping sounds. Knowing how much of this is second- or  even third-hand, I was expecting to lay into it, but actually I was not unpleasantly surprised by this. Mick Hucknall is on relatively subtle form here, not making himself the sole focal point of the record for once. His biggest contribution to the writing is the actually not-bad chorus, and the whole thing has a slightly dreamy quality which actually makes it a bit more fun than the one-dimensional Goodmen record.

It's not the greatest record ever but Simply Red were never anywhere near as good again. I can't say it conjures many images of Milan, but then maybe that's why they made the video in Blackpool.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 7, 9, 20, 21, 23, 24, 33
Available on: Life

Simply Red 'For Your Babies'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

The chances are that if you're at all interested in Simply Red, you already have the Stars album from which this was the third of five hit singles - it had already been the biggest-selling album of 1991 and was to be the top seller of 1992. If the song title doesn't ring any bells, well, that's what the YouTube links are for, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend actually looking at the screen, because the video is an annoying parade of clichés and pomposity. The song itself drifts rather in the direction of the sanctimonious too; a fairly typical example of the sentimental song of a new parent but for the fact that Mick Hucknall didn't as far as we know become a father until more than ten years later.

Mind you, this doesn't sound anywhere near as bad now as I thought it might. Perhaps it's the knowledge that Simply Red got so much worse than this but there is a decent if slight tune buried under the self-consciously tasteful production and Hucknall could still sing then. It's not something I'd want to hear too much of and I'd hardly say it deserved the success it had, but it slips down easy.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 7, 9, 20, 21, 24, 32, 33
Available on: Simply Red 25: The Greatest Hits