Simply Red

"Holding Back the Years" is credited to two people: Mick Hucknall and Neil Moss.

Hucknall has said that Moss did not co-write it. That he put his name on it to remember the good times when they used to write together.

It was number one in the United States and it still gets played forty years later. That courtesy credit has been paying out for four decades.

It is the opposite of almost every songwriting-credit story in rock, which are usually about what somebody took.

Where the song comes from

Hucknall's mother left when he was three. He was raised by his father, a barber in a town near Manchester.

The song came out of that, years later, and it has an odd biography. It was recorded first by his punk band, The Frantic Elevators, as their last single, in 1982; the group carried on until 1984.

And the chorus everybody knows was not there. He added it afterwards, by then with Simply Red.

So the song existed twice: once as the end of a punk band that did not work, and once as the beginning of the one that did.

The other version

Here you have to step away from the happy ending, because the happy ending did not happen.

It is usually told that as an adult he met his mother again and that it closed the wound. The reunion was in the mid-nineties, in Dallas, and it did not work.

Later, when the British press tracked down Maureen Hucknall, she publicly disputed her son's account. She said she did not abandon him, that she still loves him, that he is her boy. And, through a friend, she let it be known that she did not want to see him again.

The two versions belong to the two people who were there, and this is not a court. But inventing a reconciliation that never happened is the one thing you cannot do.

Two songs that are not theirs

Simply Red made cover versions all their life, and they are worth crediting properly.

"Money's Too Tight (to Mention)", their first single, from 1985, is by The Valentine Brothers, who recorded it in 1982. And it is not about the Thatcher era: the lyrics explicitly name Reagan's economic policy. It is an American complaint, not a British one.

"If You Don't Know Me by Now" comes from the repertoire of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, from 1972, but the lead vocal on that original was not Melvin's, it was Teddy Pendergrass's. It was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who had also intended it at the time for Labelle, who never got to record it. The Grammy won by the Simply Red version went to those two, as the songwriters.

Their only number one at home

They sold fifty million records worldwide and had a single number one in the United Kingdom: "Fairground", in 1995, four weeks.

And it is not entirely theirs either. It is built on a fragment of a Dutch house track, which in turn takes a fragment of a piece by Sérgio Mendes. That is why the authorship is split between Hucknall, two Dutch producers and Mendes himself.

Simply Red's most successful song in their own house belongs, in good part, to three other people.

"Stars"

What is genuinely huge, and usually told worse than it is: "Stars", from 1991, was the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 1991 and again in 1992.

It is the first album to top two consecutive years since "Bridge Over Troubled Water", by Simon & Garfunkel, in 1970 and 1971.

Twelve times platinum in the United Kingdom, with some three million three hundred thousand copies there alone. It is the fourteenth best-selling album in British history.

There is no need for the line that goes around, the one about them beating the Beatles: the real figure is already hard to improve on.

What to remember

Simply Red are proof that you can have one of the best voices in a country and spend your career singing other people's songs, and that this takes nothing away from anyone.

Put on "Holding Back the Years", "Stars" or "If You Don't Know Me by Now" and you will hear soul sung by a redhead from Manchester who as a teenager was at the Sex Pistols concert that half that city's scene came out of.

In 2009, when the surviving members of The Faces got back together, they chose him to take the place of Rod Stewart. That is no small recommendation.

Hucknall dissolved the group in 2010 and re-formed it in 2015. In 2025 he did his fortieth anniversary tour and released a new album.

Remember him like this: the voice is his, and quite a lot of the rest is borrowed, including a credit he gave away.

---

Sources

Simply Red, British pop and soul group formed in Manchester in 1985 around the singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall, born in Manchester on 8 June 1960 and its only constant member; the name alludes to his red hair and to his nickname. Hucknall attended the Sex Pistols concert in Manchester in 1976 and afterwards led the punk band The Frantic Elevators, which recorded a first version of "Holding Back the Years" as its last single in 1982 and broke up in 1984; the song's definitive chorus was added later. The track is credited to Mick Hucknall and Neil Moss, although Hucknall has stated that Moss did not take part in writing it and that he gave him the credit in memory of the period when they worked together. "Holding Back the Years" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the United Kingdom. Hucknall's mother left home when he was three; the two met again in the mid-nineties in Dallas and the reunion did not prosper, and Maureen Hucknall publicly questioned her son's account in statements to the British press. "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)", the group's first single in 1985, is a version of The Valentine Brothers track released in 1982, whose lyrics refer expressly to the economic policy of the Reagan administration and not to Margaret Thatcher's government; it reached number thirteen in the United Kingdom and number twenty-eight in the United States. "If You Don't Know Me by Now" is a version of the track recorded in 1972 by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, whose lead vocal was Teddy Pendergrass's; it was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, originally intended for Labelle, and the Grammy for best R&B song went to its authors. "Fairground" (1995), the group's only number one in the United Kingdom, with four weeks at the top, is built on a fragment of "Give It Up", by The Goodmen, which in turn incorporates material from "Fanfarra", by Sérgio Mendes, which is why its authorship is split between Hucknall, René ter Horst, Gaston Steenkist and Sérgio Mendes. The album "Stars" (1991) was the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 1991 and in 1992, the first to top two consecutive years since "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel in 1970 and 1971; it earned twelve British platinum awards, with some 3.3 million copies in that country, and ranks among the best-selling albums in the history of the United Kingdom. The group has passed fifty million records sold. In 2009 Mick Hucknall replaced Rod Stewart as vocalist in The Faces reunion. Hucknall dissolved Simply Red in 2010 and re-formed it in 2015; in 2025 he toured for the fortieth anniversary and released a new album. Simon & Garfunkel and Rod Stewart have their own profiles in this series. Externally authored text, edited and verified for Rebobinados. Interpretations of the meaning of their work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Songfacts, Official Charts, Daily Mirror, WhoSampled and other press coverage.