The Living Years
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| The Living Years | ||
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| Studio album by Mike + The Mechanics | ||
| Released | 1988 | |
| Recorded | The Farm Surrey April 18-August 18, 1988 | |
| Genre | Adult Contemporary | |
| Length | 47:11 | |
| Label | Atlantic (US)/ WEA (Rest Of World) |
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| Producer(s) | Christopher Neil and Mike Rutherford | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mike + The Mechanics chronology | ||
| Mike + The Mechanics (1985) |
The Living Years (1988) |
Word Of Mouth (1990) |
The Living Years is the second album by Mike and The Mechanics, released in 1988.
The first single taken off the album, "Nobody's Perfect," was a flop, peaking at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, the next single of the album, the title track, was a worldwide number one smash, reaching that mark on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week ending March 25, 1989. The song also reached number one on the Australian ARIA singles chart the week ending May 13, 1989. In the United Kingdom, it spent three weeks at number 2 in January and February 1989, stuck behind Marc Almond and Gene Pitney's reworking of "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart". "The Living Years" was co-written by Rutherford and B. A. Robertson, both of whom had recently lost their fathers. The song combined features of both writers' relationships with their fathers; it dealt with Rutherford's strained relationship with his late father and the birth of Robertson's son three months after his father's death. The album itself was also a considerable success, reaching number 13 on the Billboard 200 and number 2 on the UK albums chart.
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Mike Rutherford and Christopher Neil, except where noted
- "Nobody's Perfect" (Mike Rutherford/B. A. Robertson) – 4:48
- "The Living Years" (Mike Rutherford/B. A. Robertson) – 5:32
- "Seeing Is Believing" (Mike Rutherford/B. A. Robertson) – 3:13
- "Nobody Knows" – 4:24
- "Poor Boy Down" – 4:33
- "Blame" – 5:24
- "Don't" – 5:45
- "Black And Blue" (B. A. Robertson/Mike Rutherford/Paul Young) – 3:27
- "Beautiful Day" (Christopher Neil/Mike Rutherford/Paul Young) – 3:39
- "Why Me?" (Mike Rutherford/B. A. Robertson) – 6:26
[edit] Personnel
- Mike Rutherford - guitar & bass
- Paul Young - vocals
- Paul Carrack - vocals
- Adrian Lee - keyboards
- Peter Van Hooke - drums
[edit] Miscellanea
- Phil Collins and Tony Banks, Rutherford's Genesis bandmates, made a guest appearance playing the riff on Black and Blue. [This is a sample by Banks of Collins and Rutherford playing a riff during the Invisible Touch sessions.]
