The long-running English pop-rock band Smokie landed six singles in the UK Top 10 from 1975 to 1978. • Smokie’s roots trace back to 1966, when singer Chris Norman, guitarist Terry Uttley, and bassist Alan Silson came together as The Elizabethans in Yorkshire, England. • They were also known as Kindness before signing with RAK Records and debuting as Smokey with the 1975 album Pass It Around. • The group’s 1975 sophomore effort, Changing All the Time, generated two Top 10 UK hits: “If You Think You Know How to Love Me” and “Don’t Play Your Rock ’n’ Roll to Me”. That same year, they changed the spelling of their name to Smokie after legal threats from singer Smokey Robinson. • They went on to score four more Top 10 UK hits, including “Living Next Door to Alice”, which became their lone US hit, reaching No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. • Smokie split up after 1982’s Midnight Delight but regrouped in 1986. Norman bailed to focus on his solo career prior to the recording of 1988’s All Fired Up. • Norman’s slot was initially filled by singer Alan Barton, who died when Smokie’s tour bus crashed in Germany in 1995. • Shortly before the tragic accident, Smokie teamed up with comedian Ray Chubby Brown for “Living Next Door to Alice (Who the F**K is Alice)”, a parody version of “Living Next Door to Alice”. The single reached No. 3 on the UK charts, giving Smokie their first Top 5 hit in nearly 20 years. • The band continued releasing records through 2010, and as of 2020, a version of the band was still performing live.