Red & Music

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Red Red Wine (song)

"Red Red Wine" is a song written, performed and originally recorded by American artist Neil Diamond in 1968. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of someone who finds drinking red wine the only way to forget his woes.

Diamond's version reached number sixty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968. Diamond later performed a UB40-inspired version of the song on tour. This version was released on Diamond's The Greatest Hits (1966-1992). The song has been covered by Tony Tribe, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds, and more famously by British reggae group UB40, whose version topped the U.S. and UK singles charts. Tony Tribe covered the song in 1969 in a reggae-influenced style. UB40 covered the song in 1983 in a lighter reggae-style.

Red Rain (song)

"Red Rain" is the first track on Peter Gabriel's 1986 solo album So. In the USA, it was the second single from the album and reached Number 3 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the fall of 1986, receiving strong radio airplay and MTV rotation; in the rest of the world it was released until 1987 and received minor airplay and poor sales. Stewart Copeland from The Police played the hi-hat for the rain-like background sound; the rest of the drumming was handled by Jerry Marotta. A live version also charted in the US and the UK in 1994.

The song is a combination of several inspirations. The lyrics directly reference a recurring dream Gabriel was having where he swam in his backyard pool drinking cold red wine. Another version of the dream had bottles falling from a cliff, and the bottles were in the shape of people. When they were smashed on impact with the ground, the people-shaped bottles had red liquid coming out, and then it began to rain the same red liquid.

Simply Red (band) Holding Back the Years

"Holding Back the Years" is the 7th track of Simply Red's debut studio album Picture Book (1985). It remains their most successful single, having reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the UK Singles Chart. It is one of two Simply Red songs (the other being their cover of "If You Don't Know Me by Now") to reach #1 in the US. "Holding Back the Years" had initially been released in the UK the year before, reaching #51.

Frontman of the group, Mick Hucknall, wrote the song when he was 17, while living at his father's house. The chorus did not come to him until many years later. His mother left the family when he was three; the upheaval caused by this event inspired him to write the song. The music was co-written with Neil Moss, a member of Hucknall's first group, the Frantic Elevators.