Songoftheday 1/13/15 - I been laid off from work my rent is due, my kids all need brand new shoes..

"Money's Too Tight (To Mention)" - Simply Red
from the album Picture Book (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day comes from the British "blue-eyed soul" band Simply Red, who broke through big in America with their ballad "Holding Back The Years". For their second American single the group released the song they put out first in the UK, the ultra-funky "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)". It's a cover of a record from the soul duo the Valentine Brothers, which peaked (frustratingly, I'm sure) at #41 on the R&B chart in Billboard in 1982...

Lead singer Mick Hucknall and Simply Red sped up the tempo a little bit but kept the post-disco groove and early-80s references like "Reaganomics" and "cutbacks". As their first British hit it originally went to #13 on the UK top-40 in 1985...

"Money's Too Tight" became Simply Red's second American top-40 hit in October of 1986, while climbing all the way to #2 for two weeks on the Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single made the top-10 in Italy, Ireland and New Zealand.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Simply Red live as the record was a hit in 1986...

And again from their 1992 tour...

...fast forward to 1996 (included for the cute saxophone cub)...

..and finally, from their "Final" tour in 2010 in London...

Up tomorrow: A "Vice"-man has a pulse.