Stars is the fourth album by British-based pop/soul/jazz band Simply Red, released in September 1991. Five singles were released from the album, including the UK top ten hits “Stars” and “For Your Babies”. The album was a worldwide success, particularly in the band’s home country where it has been certified twelve times platinum and was the best-selling album of the year in the UK for both 1991 and 1992, the first album to be the best-seller in two consecutive years since Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water in 1970–71. As of July 2016 it is the 14th best-selling album of all time in the UK.
Stars was the first Simply Red album to feature entirely original material and no cover versions, and it was also the last album to feature member Tim Kellett, who started his own band Olive after touring.[citation needed] It is the only Simply Red album to feature Fritz McIntyre singing lead vocals, on the tracks “Something Got Me Started” and “Wonderland”.
The album was on the shortlist of nominees for the 1992 Mercury Prize. In 2000 Q placed Stars at number 80 in its list of “The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever”.
Recording for the album originally began in Paris in August 1990, but the initial sessions did not go well: the equipment in the studio did not live up to expectations, and with the Gulf War having just started and dominating television news reports, the band found the atmosphere in the bunker-like studios oppressive and not conducive to making music. The group moved to the more relaxed surroundings of Venice to resume recording in the Condulmer Studios.
Simply Red’s leader and singer Mick Hucknall had wanted the album to have a less electronic and more soulful sound than their previous work, and had recruited programmer Gota after hearing his work with Soul II Soul. Hucknall did not realise that Gota was also a drummer until he heard him jamming on the drum kit one evening in Venice, after which Gota also became the band’s full-time drummer. The songs had been written over the previous year: “Something Got Me Started” and “Stars” had been written on the road during the group’s previous tour. “Thrill Me” was based on a riff that McIntyre had come up with, while Hucknall described “Wonderland” as “probably the most political song I’ve written”, documenting his dissatisfaction with the British Conservative government of the time.
The album cover features a photograph of singer Hucknall in the Californian desert, wearing a Native American painted cloak that he had bought in Spain. Hucknall had insisted that in the shot he would be wearing the cloak and nothing else, displaying his bare legs. However, when photographer Zanna showed the photographs to EastWest Records, they were concerned that Hucknall’s bare legs would offend sensibilities in the US, and Zanna had to digitally retouch the picture using a test photograph of her assistant’s jeans-covered legs. (by wikipedia)
Although it doesn’t have a single as strong as “Holding Back the Years” or “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” Stars is Simply Red’s best album since their debut. It’s smoother and more polished than their previous work, yet Mick Hucknall is singing better than ever and his songwriting is improving. That is a good thing, too, since Stars is the first Simply Red album not to contain any cover songs. Having absorbed his pop, soul, and reggae influences, Hucknall is now successfully writing songs in his own style, something that, with the exception of “Holding Back the Years,” he hadn’t managed previously. The result, in Europe and especially the U.K., was a massive commercial breakthrough for the group. Stars even outsold Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at home. In America, where the band had never established much audience continuity beyond its two number one hit singles, it was a different story, which, given the band’s highly American-influenced sound, was a confirmation of the overall decline of English bands in the U.S. in the early ’90s. (by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)
Personnel:
Gota (drums, percussion, programming)
Mick Hucknall (vocals)
Tim Kellett (keyboards, bass on 07.)
Ian Kirkham (saxophone)
Fritz McIntyre (keyboards, vocals on 01. + 10. background vocals on 09.)
Heitor T P (guitar)
Shaun Ward (bass)
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Jess Bailey (keyboard programming)
Rowetta (background vocals on 09.)
Tracklist:
01. Something Got Me Started (Hucknall/McIntyre) 4.01
02. Stars (Hucknall) 4.08
03. Thrill Me (Hucknall/McIntyre) 5.04
04. Your Mirror (Hucknall) 3.59
05. She’s Got It Bad (Hucknall) 3.33
06. For Your Babies (Hucknall) 4.17
07. Model (Hucknall) 3.46
08. How Could I Fall (Hucknall) 4.45
09. Freedom (Hucknall) 3.52
10. Wonderland (Hucknall) 3.49
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