History Music / SimpleMinds

** ''Street Fighting Years'' (CreatorBreakdown, ballad heavy stadium rock)

Simple Minds perfected their sound around this time, a mixture of NewRomantic [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]], ProgressiveRock, and ElectronicMusic. They recorded enough material for two albums, variously released as ''Sons and Fascination'' and ''Sister Feelings Call'' or as one double album. This produced their first hit, "Love Song", and caught the attention of PeterGabriel, who chose them to open for him on a European tour. They were beginning to succeed; but the constant recording and touring was too much for Brian [=McGee=], who left at the end of the recording sessions.

** In addition to their two cover albums they also released a lot of studio covers as B Sides in the ''Cry'' and ''Black And White 050505'' period, in addition to the non-album "Children Of The Revolution" released [[NoExportForYou as a German exclusive]].

* EpicRocking: Pleasantly Disturbed, In Trance As Mission, A Brass Band In African Chimes, Street Fighting Years and Belfast Child, to name a few.

* LetsDuet: With Robin Clark of {{Chic}} on ''Once Upon A Time''.

* MinimalisticCoverArt: Original pressings their second album, Real To Real Cacophony, were a thermographic and textured blue sleeve, but it was very expensive to produce, and all reissues have since had a solid dark blue sleeve.

** Briefly mentioned in their more recent song "Stagefright." It was toned down for the recorded version with "...to get beneath the table..." but it was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] much more blatant. "Get" instead being [[PrecisionFStrike "Fuck."]] They still use the latter when playing it live, though.

** ''Life In A Day''(Art Punk),
** ''Real To Real Cacophony'' (Gothic Post Punk)
** ''Empires And Dance'' (Progressive Post Punk w/ Disco and Krautrock influences),
** ''Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call'', (Combination of all the above w/ better production),

** ''Once Upon A Time'' (Stadium Rock with soul backing singers)

** "Let The Children Speak" from ''Real Life'' is a vocal rearrangement of the instrumental "Theme For Great Cities" from ''Sister Feelings Call''.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** The compilation ''The Early Years'' was only available for a week before being pulled out of print for copyright reasons. It turns up occasionally, but is still sought after by fans.
** Their songs "Special View", "Garden Of Hate", "New Warm Skin", "Film Theme Dub" and "Celebrate" (Extended) have never appeared on CD due to being from the Arista period (The Themes Box which collects nearly all their singles, starts with the Virgin period).
*** The fandom rejoiced when all the Arista tracks appeared on the X5 box set in addition to a previously unreleased version of In Every Heaven.
** Their first single under the name Johnny And The Self Abusers, "Saints And Sinners/Dead Vandals", has not appeared on any of their releases but has been released on a couple of various artist CD compilations put out by the original label, Chiswick Records.

* BlackSheepHit: "Don't You (Forget About Me)".

* CreatorBreakdown: The song Street Fighting Years was written about the murder of one of Jim's close friends. He was so upset and angry by it that he could not convey all the emotions he felt into words, and so effectively had writer's block for a short time. He decided the lyrics should convey each of the emotions musically, as they would have occurred to the protagonist of the song. The sad and epic mood of this song was unusual by Jim's standards, and helped influence the rest of the album of the same name.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Many reviewers of the band's Celebrate compilation thought that the Patti Smith cover "Dancing Barefoot" was a new track, such was the failure of its parent 2001 CoverAlbum "Neon Lights". It was actually a single at the time, and whilst not a hit, Celebrate was designed to be a complete singles collection (it misses out a few non-album ones however).

They returned to the sound of ''Once Upon A Time'' for 2005's ''Black & White 050505'' and 2009's ''Graffiti Soul'', which went to #10 on the UK album chart. After more than 30 years, they can still rock and still draw a crowd.

** ''Big Music'' (Electronic post punk)

* "Big Music" (2014)

** "Neon Lights" A CoverAlbum in the modern electronic style of Cry

In 1996, they signed with Chrysalis Records. It was time for another NewSoundAlbum, the purely ElectronicMusic ''Neapolis''. It went back to the sound of ''Real to Real Cacophony'' and ''Empires and Dance'', and like those albums, didn't sell well. But Simple Minds would stay with this sound for a while, through the aborted ''Our Secrets Are The Same'' (a victim of Chrysalis/EMI merger politics, finally released in 2004 as part of a box set), the CoverAlbum ''Neon Lights'', and 2002's ''Cry''.

* ''Emipres and Dance'' (1980)

In 1996, they signed with Chrysalis Records. It was time for another NewSoundAlbum, the purely ElectronicMusic ''Neapolis''. It went back to the sound of ''Real to Real Cacophony'' and ''Emipres and Dance'', and like those albums, didn't sell well. But Simple Minds would stay with this sound for a while, through the aborted ''Our Secrets Are The Same'' (a victim of Chrysalis/EMI merger politics, finally released in 2004 as part of a box set), the CoverAlbum ''Neon Lights'', and 2002's ''Cry''.

In early '79, they recorded their first album, ''Life in a Day''. Sales were disappointing, and the band quickly [[CanonDiscontinuity dismissed]] it as sounding too much like their influences (DavidBowie, Music/{{Genesis}}, RoxyMusic, and the Punk and New Wave around them). Their next album, ''Real to Real Cacophony'', was dark, moody, and experimental. It sold even less that ''Life in a Day''. Their third album, 1980's ''Emipres and Dance'', was proto-{{Industrial}}, sold poorly again, and this time Arista had had enough and they were transferred to Virgin Records.

Simple Minds is a [[LongRunners long-running]] Scottish rock band, centered on singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill. They began as part of the PunkRock and Music/NewWave movement of the late [[TheSeventies 1970s]], and rose to become one of the iconic bands of TheEighties. In Europe, they can still draw a crowd; but in America, they are known almost entirely for a BlackSheepHit they didn't even write, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", which became famous for its appearance in ''TheBreakfastClub''.

Simple Minds perfected their sound around this time, a mixture of NewRomantic Music/NewWave, ProgressiveRock, and ElectronicMusic. They recorded enough material for two albums, variously released as ''Sons and Fascination'' and ''Sister Feelings Call'' or as one double album. This produced their first hit, "Love Song", and caught the attention of PeterGabriel, who chose them to open for him on a European tour. They were beginning to succeed; but the constant recording and touring was too much for Brian [=McGee=], who left at the end of the recording sessions.

Kenny Hyslop replaced [=McGee=] for the ''Sons and Fascination'' tour, and played on the next single, "Promised You A Miracle", but didn't fit in with the band and left. Mike Olgetree was next, and wrote the drum parts for their next album. But he left too, and handed his drum parts to Mel Gaynor. Mel turned out to be the perfect drummer for Simple Minds, with a combination of skill and brute force. And so the classic Simple Minds lineup was completed, as was the album that would be considered their greatest artistic achievement, ''New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)''.

** LouReed's "Street Hassle" on ''Sparkle in the Rain''.

One American who did take notice was filmmaker Creator/JohnHughes, who convinced them to record a song for his next movie, ''TheBreakfastClub''. To Simple Minds, it was a lightweight pop song; but to Americans, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" [[hottip:*:Written by Keith Forsey, who did the music for ''{{Flashdance}}'', and Steve Schiff, guitarist for Music/NinaHagen]] was romantic gold, and it became their biggest U.S. hit. The band found themselves with a BlackSheepHit, and spent many years dismissing it.

[[caption-width-right:252:Charlie Burchill, Mel Gaynor, Jim Kerr]] Simple Minds is a [[LongRunners long-running]] Scottish rock band, centered on singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill. They began as part of the PunkRock and Music/NewWave movement of the late [[TheSeventies 1970s]], and rose to become one of the iconic bands of TheEighties. In Europe, they can still draw a crowd; but in America, they are known almost entirely for a BlackSheepHit they didn't even write, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", which became famous for its appearance in ''TheBreakfastClub''.

**** In the US it is Don't You (Forget About Me), as it was their only song to top the charts in the US.

** The instrumentation in chorus of "Seeing Out The Angel" on ''Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call'' would later be reused for the famous "Mandela Day" song.

* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Seems to be what the song "Subway Sex" from their "Johnny And The Self-Abusers" is about, then again, the lyrics are hard to understand, and [[WordSaladLyrics don't seem to make that much sense anyway.]]
** Briefly mentioned in their more recent song "Stagefright." It was toned down for the recorded version with "...to get beneath the table..." but it was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] much more blatant. "Get" instead being [[PrecisionFStrike "Fuck."]]