Simply Red

Released: October 14, 1985

Songwriter: Mick Hucknall

Producer: Stewart Levine

Listen boy, I'll tell you a thing
I'll make you a career in the business I'm in
I'll make you rich, I'll make you a toy
I'll make you turn over into my little boy
Y'see I'm going somewhere
I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get there

I know money's a thing - your only inspiration
And your only meaning
You must think that all I do
Is spend my time making pretty pictures of you
You can fall when I will climb
But I'll be falling over just by having you in my mind

1st. chorus:
Mend that fight - oh listen to them
Kickin' up a ball inside a Jericho wall
Mend that fight - oh it's all twisted through them
If you ain't rich then you won't go to the ball

Having mercy and licking up love
And moving through your ocean like I've never had enough
Y'see you ain't all I want
You're everything and more that I have ever hoped for
You must think that all I do
Is spend my time making pretty pictures of you
You can fall when I will climb
But I'll be falling over just by having you in my mind

-1st chorus-

2nd chorus:
You won't go to the ball
You won't go to the ball
You won't go, you won't go
You won't go to the ball
(repeat)

You must think that all I do
Is spend my time making pretty pictures of you
You can fall when I will climb
But I'll be falling over just by having you in my mind

Mend that fight - oh listen to them
Kickin' up a ball inside a No.10 wall
Mend that fight - it's all twisted through them
I'm rich, you ain't, so you won't go to the ball
No more!

-2nd chorus-

Outro:
Yeah, if you ain't got nothing
You'll never go there
(Repeat)
I tried to make you see
I tell you, I'd had enough
Money was a thing, money was a thing
Money was a thing that I believed in
(Repeat)

Simply Red is a British soul and pop band. The first incarnation of the band was a punk group called The Frantic Elevators, whose seven-year run produced limited releases on local labels and ended in 1984 upon critical acclaim for their final single, “Holding Back the Years”.

By early 1985, Mick Hucknall and manager Elliot Rashman had assembled a band of local session musicians and begun to attract record company attention. The group adopted the name “Red” (after Hucknall’s nickname, denoting his hair colour) but then Mick decided it would sound better with the addition of the word ‘Simply.’

Since the mid 1980s, the band has sold more than 50 million albums.

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