This article is about the song by Mike + The Mechanics. For the album of the single, see Living Years. For the 2013 album The Living Years, see The Isaacs. For the One Tree Hill episode, see The Living Years (One Tree Hill episode).
"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
"Nobody's Perfect" (1988)
"The Living Years" (1988)
"Seeing Is Believing" (1989)
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.
"TheLivingYears" is a soft rock ballad written by B. A. Robertson and Mike Rutherford, and recorded by Rutherford's British rock band Mike + The Mechanics...
LivingYears is the second album by Mike + The Mechanics, released in 1988. The album reached number 13 on the US Billboard 200 and number 2 on the UK...
Years of Living Dangerously is an American documentary television series, spread over two seasons, focusing on climate change. The first season, consisting...
bluegrass band. Lily's parents are Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors. A few years after they were liberated from a concentration camp in Germany in 1945,...
The Wonder Years is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until...
TheLiving Daylights is a 1987 spy film, the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy...
TheLiving Tombstone is an electronic rock band and YouTube channel formed in 2011 by Israeli-born music producer Yoav Landau as a one-man band and later...
The following is a list of living centenarians (living people who have attained the age of at least 100 years) known for reasons other than just their...
Night of theLiving Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John...
The Return of theLiving Dead is a 1985 American comedy horror film written and directed by Dan O'Bannon (in his directorial debut) from a story by Rudy...
and 54 days. The oldest known living person is Maria Branyas of Spain (born in the USA), aged 117 years, 73 days. The oldest known living man is John Tinniswood...
other group Genesis. The band are known for the hit singles "Silent Running", "All I Need Is a Miracle", "Taken In", "TheLivingYears", "Word of Mouth"...
that the leader is alive within the last 10 years. The oldest living former state leader is Guillermo Rodríguez of Ecuador at the age of 100 years, 194 days...
Among theLiving is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Anthrax. It was released on March 16, 1987, by Megaforce Records in the US and...
Forever Living Products is a multi-level marketing company which was founded in 1980 in Tempe, Arizona by Rex Maughan. The company has reported a network...
TheLiving End is an Australian punk rockabilly band from Melbourne, formed in 1994. Since 2002, the line-up consists of Chris Cheney (vocals, guitar)...
This is a list of the oldest living people who have been verified to be alive as of the dates of the cited supporting sources. It was estimated in 2015...
An assisted living residence or assisted living facility (ALF) is a housing facility for people with disabilities or for adults who cannot or who choose...
The New Living Translation (NLT) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 1996 by Tyndale House Foundation, the NLT was created...
TheLiving Bible (TLB or LB) is a personal paraphrase, not a translation, of the Bible in English by Kenneth N. Taylor and first published in 1971. Taylor...
Living Books is a series of interactive read-along adventures aimed at children aged 3–9. Created by Mark Schlichting, the series was mostly developed...
A living fossil is an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil,...
Global Information