Holding Back for 25 Years

Every summer there usually seems to be a song that receives such heavy rotation on Top 40 radio that it feels like it’s on the air all the time.  In the Summer of 1986 for me that song was “Holding Back the Years” by Simply Red.  Exactly 25 years ago today, “Holding Back the Years” went to number 1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.  It was the band’s second top 40 hit, following 1985’s “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention).”  It would be succeeded by three more Top 40 hits over the next five years, including one more number 1 — 1989’s remake of the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes classic “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.”

The band, which in recent years became largely various collections of musicians working with the band’s frontman, Mick Hucknall, gave its last concert just this past December at the O2 arena in London.  Check out more about the band at Simply Red’s website.