"Money's Too Tight" is a song written and first recorded by The Valentine Brothers, John Valentine and Billy Valentine, and released as a single in 1982. It was covered by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 pop/soul group Simply Red

Simply Red

Simply Red were a British soul band that sold more than 50 million albums over a 25-year career. Their style drew influences from blue-eyed soul, new romantic, rock, reggae and jazz...

 in 1985. The Valentine Brothers' version peaked at #41 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

R&B charts, while the Simply Red single went to #13 on the UK charts in 1985 and #28 on the Billboard U.S. pop chart in 1986. It was Simply Red's first UK single.

The song relates to the economic problems of the 1970s and 1980s

Early 1980s recession in the United States

The United States entered recession in January 1980 and exited six months later, in July 1980. Although recovery took hold, the unemployment rate remained unchanged through the start of a second recession in July 1981. The downturn ended sixteen months later, in November 1982...

, and specifically mentions Reaganomics

Reaganomics

Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, also known as supply-side economics and called trickle-down economics, particularly by critics...

, a set of economic policies implemented by U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 president Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 in order to encourage the growth of the American economy.  It also refers to Reagan himself indirectly as "the old man that's over the hill", and at the end makes sexual references to his wife, saying, "did the earth move for you, Nancy

Nancy Reagan

Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....

?"

A pastiche of the song was recorded and used as the theme song for the Australian investment TV series Money

Money (TV series)

Money is an Australian factual television program that was broadcast on the Nine Network as a regular weekly series from 1993 to 2002. It also appeared as occasional specials from 2002 to 2006. Money was a financial and investment program, hosted by Paul Clitheroe.The series spawned a successful...

(1993–2002).

Track listings

7" single

1. Money's Too Tight (To Mention) 3:38
2. Open Up The Red Box 3:55

Simply Red version

Chart (1985)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	28
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...	2
UK Singles Chart	13
Irish Singles Chart	9
Canadian Singles Chart	51
Dutch Top 40	22
French Singles Chart	29
New Zealand Singles Chart	8
Australian Singles Chart	21
Italian Singles Chart	4