Songfacts®:

• This was the debut single for the band put together in the first ITV Popstars series on British TV, which they won after over 2,000 hopefuls had been auditioned. Their original line up was Danny Foster, Myleene Klass, Noel Sullivan, Suzanne Shaw and Kym Marsh.
• This single had the third fastest selling opening week (550,000 copies sold) in UK chart history and the biggest ever by a debut act and a non-charity record. Their record was beaten a year later by Will Young, the first UK Pop Idol, with his debut single "Anything Is Possible/Evergreen," which sold over 1 million in its first week.
• The original version of this song was recorded by the UK/Dutch vocal group Girl Thing. It was released in Japan but later withdrawn after the song's writers decided to give it to Hear'Say. Girl Thing were dropped from Polydor Records to make way for Hear'Say.
• Even though their next single, "The Way To Your Love," also topped the UK charts, Hear'Say's fortunes declined and 18 months after the release of "Pure And Simple" they split up. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above
• This was co-written by Alison Clarkson, who previously had solo success with songs such as "Doin' The Do" under the name of Betty Boo. It took her only 30 minutes to pen this and she discussed her songwriting with the Metro newspaper March 31, 2006: "I quit the industry and eventually got back into it when I was asked to work on Simon Cowell's girl group, Girl Thing. I wrote 'Pure And Simple' for them. You'd work with different writers, people you'd never met before, and you'd be under a lot of pressure and write these songs under duress. That song was on the shelf for two years before Hear'Say used it. I can work quickly under pressure but I don't enjoy it. Jobbing songwriters do that and you end up with quantity rather than quality."