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| "The Living Years" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Mike + The Mechanics | ||||
| from the album Living Years | ||||
| B-side | "Too Many Friends" | |||
| Released | 27 December 1988[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Soft rock | |||
| Length | 5:32 | |||
| Label | Atlantic, WEA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | B. A. Robertson, Mike Rutherford | |||
| Producer(s) | Christopher Neil, Mike Rutherford | |||
| Mike + The Mechanics singles chronology | ||||
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| Official video | ||||
| "The Living Years" on YouTube | ||||
"The Living Years" is a soft rock ballad written by B. A. Robertson and Mike Rutherford, and recorded by Rutherford's British rock band Mike + The Mechanics. It was released in December 1988 in the United Kingdom and in the United States as the second single from their album Living Years. The song was a chart hit around the world, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 on 25 March 1989, the band's only number one and last top ten hit on that chart,[2] and reaching number-one in Australia, Canada and Ireland and number 2 in the UK. It spent four weeks at number-one on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Paul Carrack sings lead vocals on the track.
The song addresses a son's regret over unresolved conflict with his now-deceased father. It won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically in 1989,[3] and was nominated for four Grammy awards in 1990, including Record and Song of the Year, as well as Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Video. In 1996, famed composer Burt Bacharach opined that the song was one of the finest lyrics of the last ten years.[4]
In 2004, "The Living Years" was awarded a 4-Million-Air citation by BMI.[5]
- ^ "Mike And The Mechanics Discography - UK". 45cat.com. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Weekly Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 Songs from the First 50 Years, 1980–1989". Billboard.
- ^ "Mike Rutherford". IMDb. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
- ^ "Do you know the ways to Monterey? Santa Fe? Whitley Bay?." Mojo. March 1996.
- ^ "BMI London Awards: Song List". BMI. 5 October 2004. Retrieved 8 December 2009.