Songoftheday 5/26/15 - Feel I'm getting harder now (Get off your back four, get on top more) ...

"The Right Thing" - Simply Red
from the album Men And Women (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's SOTD comes from the British "blue-eyed soul" band Simply Red, whose charismatic and vocally impressive lead singer Mick Hucknall led them to a #1 hit in America in 1986 with "Holding Back The Years" and a top-40 follow-up with "Money's Too Tight To Mention". The following year the group released their sophomore effort, Men And Women, which "cleaned up" their look and strengthened their R&B cred with a few tracks co-written by Motown songsmith Lamont Dozier. The first single from the set, "The Right Thing", was a slinky and suggestive number written by Hucknall that featured a brighter and funkier horn section in the back...

"The Right Thing" became Simply Red's third top-40 pop hit in America in May of 1987. In their native Britain the track made it to #11, and it was a top-10 success in Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and down in New Zealand. I bought this album on cassette in my Chicago days, and it remains a personal favorite.

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Here's the band previewing the new album in 1986 at the Montreaux Pop Festival...

..and again on tour in 1992...

...fast forward to 1998...

..and finally their "final" tour in 2010...

Up tomorrow: a stellar funk collective goes to the wedding reception.