A punk band's last single became Simply Red's breakthrough

Before Simply Red there was the Frantic Elevators, a punk group in which Mick Hucknall sang for seven years. They released little on local labels, and the run ended in 1984 with acclaim for their final single, “Holding Back the Years”. Hucknall then teamed up with the manager Elliot Rashman and, by early 1985, had put together a band of local session musicians. They tried several names, including World Service and Red and the Dancing Dead, before settling on Red, after Hucknall's hair colour, with “Simply” added in front.

They signed with Elektra in 1985. Their first single, a cover of the Valentine Brothers' “Money's Too Tight (to Mention)”, reached the top 20 in the UK and Ireland and the top 30 in the US, France and the Netherlands, and appeared on the debut album Picture Book. Several low-charting singles followed. One of the comparative flops was a re-recording of “Holding Back the Years” in a new soul-ballad arrangement, which first placed outside the UK top 50.

Released again in 1986, it became a major hit, peaking at number one in Ireland and number two in the UK. In the US the band later topped the Billboard Hot 100 with both “Holding Back the Years” and “If You Don't Know Me by Now”. The albums A New Flame, Stars, Life and Blue and the compilation Greatest Hits all reached number one in Britain, and Stars is one of the best-selling albums in the UK. “Fairground” peaked atop the UK singles chart.

The group won Best British Group at the Brit Awards in 1992 and 1993, and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff won a Grammy for Best R&B Song with the band's version of “If You Don't Know Me by Now”. All thirteen of their studio albums have reached the UK top ten. Simply Red broke up in 2010 and re-formed in 2015, with Hucknall as the only original member. The band has sold over 50 million albums.