[1] The journalist, author and founder of Mojo magazine Paul Du Noyer credits them alongside Deaf School with restoring "Liverpool's musical reputation in the 1970s" with their success.

[2] Founded in 1970 by Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake, the Real Thing's live, progressive soul-influenced covers of American hits attracted enough attention for them to secure a recording deal with EMI.

[3] The singles they released through EMI in 1972 and 1973 such as "Vicious Circle" were, despite their high quality, not successful sellers (and have not so far been included on any of the band's compilation albums).

After Chris Amoo's brother Eddie joined the band, the Real Thing finally found chart success with the pop-soul single "You to Me Are Everything", which reached No.

[5] They continued recording prolifically, releasing a steady stream of subsequent albums: 1977's Four from Eight (originally to have been called Liverpool 8 in honour of the racially mixed, economically depressed neighbourhood in which they grew up, before Pye rejected the title), 1978's Step into Our World, (reissued in 1979 as Can You Feel the Force) and 1982's compilation 100 Minutes.

52, coming just a few months too late to be included in the band's first compilation, a K-tel collection of their Greatest Hits released in May 1980.

58 on the UK Disco chart published in Record Mirror[7][8] and radio playlisted[9][10] with a single specially written for them by Lynsey De Paul and Terry Britten, called "We Got Love (Real Thing)" produced by Nick Martinelli in 1984.

"You to Me Are Everything (The Decade Remix)" by DJ Froggy, Simon Harris and KC charted twice in the UK, peaking at No.

[citation needed] In 2019, the band were featured in a documentary called Everything – The Real Thing Story directed by Simon Sheridan,[19][20][21] which charted the history of the band from Eddie's days in Merseybeat doo-wop act the Chants[22] (said to be the only group ever to be backed by the Beatles),[23][24][25] through Chris' group's SSB (the Sophisticated Soul Brothers) and Vocal Perfection.

[26] The latter act went on to be renamed The Real Thing by manager Tony Hall, after seeing the Coca-Cola advert on a large billboard in Piccadilly Circus.

The documentary featured interviews with David Essex, Billy Ocean, Five Star's Denise Pearson, Kim Wilde and Leee John from Imagination; as well as all surviving members of the Chants and the Real Thing.

As Eddie Amoo died during the production of the film, the documentary ended up being released two years after his death.