Simply Red 乐队于1985年初在曼彻斯特成立，它是英国最成功的灵歌风格的流行乐队之一。乐队的领袖人物是Mick Hucknall，正是他的高亢嗓音使得乐队给人一种真正的灵歌感觉，并最终使乐队同一些仅仅称得上熟练的灵歌乐队区别开来。
乐队的许多成员在后朋克时期繁忙的曼城摇滚乐坛上非常活跃。 Hucknall曾是车库乐队 The Frantic Elevators 的灵魂人物，而贝司手 Tony Bowers、鼓手 Chris Joyce和铜管乐手 Tim Kellett 都来自 The Durutti Column 乐队。后来键盘手 Fritz McIntyre 和吉他手 Sylvan Richardson也加入了乐队。共同演出了一阵子后，乐队加入了 Elektra 公司。最后乐队由于参加了 James Brown 1985年的英国巡回演出，并在演出中获得了很大成功，因而声名大振。
同年夏天，Simply Red 以一首《Moneys Too Tight(To Mention)》打入英国排行榜前 20名。随后乐队推出了他们的首张专辑《Picture Book》。 随着专辑成为金唱片，乐队在全欧洲的名气与日俱增， 最终他们以一曲《Holding Back the Years》在英美两国都获得了极大的成功， 在美国成为冠军曲，英国榜第2名。乐队的第2张专辑《Men & Women》成功发行， 确立了 Hucknall世界一流歌手的地位。1989年的专辑《A New Flame》直达英国榜冠军，并在美国产生了他们第2首冠军单曲——翻唱 Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes乐队的《If You Dont Know Me By Now》。
他们的第4张专辑—1992年的《Stars》产生了 3 首热门歌曲：《Something Got Me Started》、《Wonderland》和《For Your Babies》，此专辑获得了英国最佳专辑奖。
随后他们在1998年和1999年又分别推出了两张专辑 《Blue》和《Love & The Russian Winter》，并且在前不久又推出了他们的最新大碟《Its Only Love》，相信这些都将他们带来更多的成功。
by William Ruhlmann
The British soul-pop band Simply Red was formed in 1984 by singer Mick Red Hucknall (born Michael James Hucknall, June 8, 1960, Manchester, England) with three ex-members of Durutti Column, Tony Bowers (born October 31, 1952) (bass), Chris Joyce (born October 11, 1957, Manchester, England) (drums), and Tim Kellett (born July 23, 1964, Knaresborough, England) (brass, keyboards), plus Sylvan Richardson (guitar) and Fritz McIntyre (born September 2, 1956, Birmingham, England) (keyboards).
The group signed to Elektra Records and released Picture Book (October 1985), which featured Moneys Too Tight (To Mention), a Top 40 cover of a 1982 R&B chart single by the Valentine Brothers, and Holding Back the Years, a Hucknall original that topped the U.S. charts. The single caused the album to go platinum, and made the group one of the major successes of 1986. Men and Women (March 1987), which featured two collaborations between Hucknall and soul songwriter Lamont Dozier, was less popular, though it generated the Top 40 hit The Right Thing. (In the U.K., Infidelity and a cover of Cole Porters Evry Time We Say Goodbye also made the Top 40.) Richardson left in 1987 and was replaced by guitarist Aziz Ibrahim, who was replaced by Heitor T.P. (born Brazil). The third album, A New Flame (February 1989), went gold due to the cover of the 1972 Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes hit If You Dont Know Me by Now that hit number one and became a gold single. (In the U.K., Its Only Love and A New Flame also made the Top 40.)
By the time of the fourth album, Stars (September 1991), Bowers and Joyce had left, with Shaun Ward joining on bass and Gota on drums, and saxophonist Ian Kirkham had become a permanent member. Stars was a relative commercial disappointment in the U.S. (though it spawned Top 40 hits in Something Got Me Started and Stars and eventually went gold), but it became a major success elsewhere, especially in the U.K., where it was the best-selling album of 1991, topped the charts for 19 weeks, and spawned the Top Ten hits Stars and For Your Babies and the Top 40 hits Something Got Me Started, Thrill Me, and Your Mirror. Worldwide, it had sold eight-and-a-half-million copies by the second quarter of 1993.
Ward and Gota were gone by the release of Simply Reds fifth album, Life (October 1995), leaving a lineup of Hucknall, McIntyre, Heitor T.P., Kirkham, and backup singer Dee Johnson. The album again proved more of a success at home than in America, topping charts all over Europe, as did its leadoff single, Fairground, while spending only three months in the U.S. charts. Blue followed in 1998, and a year later Simply Red issued Love and the Russian Winter. After establishing their simplyred.com label, Home was released in 2003. Two years later, the band released Simplified, a collection of old tracks and new songs, followed by another two-year absence before the notable Stay in 2007.