Eighties Briitsh blue eyes soul singers.

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Inspired by the "Kiss-footage-put-to-music-by-Rick-Astley" thread I'd thought it'd be fun to start a thread of eighties pop singers like Astley who really had that warm soulful quality to their performances.

First up there's Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet.

I guess he used to be the biggest star of them all. Spandau Ballet was the kind of band that came out of the New Romantic scene and the demographic of the band was the same as the one which the Backstreet boys are currently going for. The differece being that Spandau ballet was a true band of musicians who played everything themselves and wrote their own songs and then of course there's Hadley's INCREDIBLE voice...

Also from the New Romantic era came perhaps the kinkiest band of them all, Frankie goes to Holywood made really dirty and angry disco but were fronted by the incredible Holly Johnsson.

Frankie goes to Hollywood will always be remembered for their song "Relax (don't do it)" but it's in their balads where Johnsson's voice truly came in its own. He could be gentle, a real tear jerker.

Legend goes that when a record executive heard the first Simply Red demo he remarked that their girl singer was incredible, saying that "She has a voice similar to Artha Franklin's" As we now all know Mick Hucnail is not a girl singer at all...

This one has always has been one of my favorites of theirs.

When Genesis' bassplayer Mike Rutherford decided to start a side project called Mike and the Mechanics, he recruited Paul Carrack to front this new band and he couldn't have chosen a better man for the job.

Carrack currently records and releases albums where he performs motown classics and doing a very good job at that too.

Paul Young is the odd man out in my list, not as big a pop star as the others, nor was he somebody who really got the acclaim he deserved but one cannot deny that powerful voice of his.

In this list though, he certainly is my favorite.