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Music critics like to point to English easy-pop band Simply Red as a textbook example of the difference between American and European taste in popular music. International stars all over the rest of the globe, in America their reputation hovers somewhere between a cult following and one hit wonder status. But back home, they've led a long and diverse career, beginning life as a ragged punk band with a soulful side, then blossoming into a white R&B band with sophisticated lounge arrangements and even aspirations to dance floor relevance. Legend has it that main singer/songwriter Mick Hucknall was inspired to form a band in 1976, after being blown away at a Sex Pistols gig while studying as an art student in Manchester. He rounded up some friends and started a punk outfit of his own, The Frantic Elevators. The Frantic Elevators actually lasted for seven years, releasing one notable single-"Holding Back the Years." Eventually the band broke up frustrated, but Hucknall stuck with manager and friend Elliot Rashman and, in 1985, they gathered a group of session musicians to bring life to Hucknall's musical ideas. Though often retaining a lineup for several years, Simply Red-named after Hucknall's hair, leftist politics and favorite soccer team-would essentially be a solo project aided by a rotating cast of musicians. Their biggest original hit came off their UK debut, Picture Book, released in '85. They reworked The Frantic Elevator's "Holding Back the Years" and scored a #1 hit in the US. Simply Red have always been noted for their R&B and soul covers and they've scored subsequent hits with "Money's Too Tight (To Mention,)" "It's Only Love" and Harold Melvin's "If You Don't Know Me By Now."

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