Songoftheday 2/2/18 - Totally broken hearted guilty of what I did to you, lately since we parted I truly know that I need you...
from the album Stars (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
Today's song of the day comes from the British soul/rock band Simply Red, who claimed a #1 pop hit in America with their cover of the classic 70s hit "If You Don't Know Me By Now" in the summer of 1989. However, with lead singer Mick Hucknall dominating the image of the group, the original members of the band started to exit, starting with drummer Chris Joyce and bass player Tony Bowers before the act's fourth studio album Stars. Regrouping as a unit with a retooled sound that was more adult pop than soul and blues, the record would eventually become their biggest album internationally of their entire career, topping the British year-end albums chart for two consecutive years. The first single from the record, "Something Got Me Started", was a funky keyboard-driven song that gave Mick and the band their final big pop radio hurrah in the States...
"Something Got Me Started" became Simply Red's fifth and so-far last top-40 pop hit in America in November of 1991. The song also climbed to #21 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while the remixes of the track helped it move to #13 on their Dance Club Play tally (their first showing in five years). Internationally, the song was a bigger success, reaching the top ten in the Netherlands (#3), Austria (#5), Italy (#5), Switzerland (#6), Ireland (#9), and New Zealand (#10). It also peaked at #11 in Canada, Germany, and their native UK, and got into the top 20 in Belgium (#15), Sweden (#18), and France (#19).
The title track "Stars" was released as the second single, and while overseas it became a big hit, reaching the top ten in the UK at #8, the single stalled right under the American pop top-40 at #44 (it did climb to #8 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart). That was followed by the midtempo charmer "For Your Babies", which reached #24 on that AC chart in the US and #9 in the UK. "Thrill Me", a house/jazz music jam, came next and climbed to #33 in Britain, and finally "Your Mirror", which was more like their lite-reggae/soul beginnings, did a bit better at #17 in the UK.
Later in 1992, the band released a four-track Montreux EP, including single "Lady Godiva's Room", which almost made the British top ten at #11. Meanwhile, keyboard player and brass musician Tim Kellett from the original line-up departed, forming the act Olive with topped the UK dance chart with "You're Not Alone". Three years later, Hucknall and the group re-emerged with their Life album, which was led by the dance-pop excursion "Fairground". That single became the act's sole #1 hit in their British home so far, while in America it only appeared on Billboard's dance chart at #20 (it "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #114). With the band fracturing further, and backup singer Fritz McIntyre (who sang counter on "Something Got Me Started") leaving for a solo career, a Greatest Hits set was issued, including a song from the Queen Latifah movie Set It Off, "Angel", which featured the American hip-hop group the Fugees, climbed to #4 in the UK, and returned them to the top ten on the American dance chart at #6, and even slipped on to the R&B chart at #95.
Simply Red, by now just Hucknall and revolving studio help, came back in 1998 with Blue, which brought back Mick's proclivity for covers, and scored four more top-40 hits in the UK, including a cover of the Hollies' classic "The Air That I Breathe" which made it to #6 in Britain. The following year, their next album, Love and The Russian Winter, contained "Ain't That A Lot Of Love", which reached #3 on the American dance chart. However with only that one charting single in Britain missing the top ten at #14, Mick was let go by his label and set out independently.
Hucknall regrouped Simply Red in 2003 for the Home album on his own Simply Red label, which spun off four top-40 hits in the UK, including the #7 hit "Sunrise", which made it to #5 on the American Adult Contemporary radio chart, and the cover of "You Make Me Feel Brand New", which also hit #7 in Britain and landed at #10 on the American AC list. Also, the title track "Home" climbed to #10 on the American dance chart. Next was the act's Simplified album, which was mostly remakes of older Simply Red material, but did contain the new Latin flavored "Perfect Love" single, which topped the US Dance Club Play chart in 2006, and peaked at #16 on the Adult Contemporary tally (and topped at #30 in Britain).
The following year, Mick came back with Stay, which at the time was to be the act's final, rewarded him with two more top-40 UK hits, with "So Not Over You" also reaching #21 on the American AC chart, and "Stay" making it to #5 on the American dance chart in 2007. After another break where Hucknall released two well-selling albums that didn't have any radio hits, he came back with Simply Red in 2015 for their most recent studio record Big Love, which coming in at #4 kept their streak of all top ten studio albums intact. In 2016, Simply Red toured to mark the anniversary of the Stars album, performing the whole album in order as the first part of the show.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band performing the song live in 1990, before the album release, in Manchester...
...and again on tour in 1996...
Here's Mick and the gang in 1999, also in Manchester...
In 2005, the band re-recorded "Something Got Me Started" with a Latin-ized touch for their Simplified album, and released it as a single, which "bubbled under" the British top 100...
Back to the band live in Budapest in 2009...
And next up, from their Final Tour Down Under at the Sydney Opera House in 2011...
and lastly, as the opening number from their reunion "anniversary" tour in 2016...
Up tomorrow: Hard-edged rap trio have some serious mental problems.
Comments