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Living Years

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This article is about the album by Mike + The Mechanics. For the song, see The Living Years. For the One Tree Hill episode, see The Living Years (One Tree Hill episode).

Living Years
Studio album by
Mike + The Mechanics
Released24 October 1988 (US)[1]
14 November 1988 (UK)[2]
Recorded18 April – 18 August 1988
StudioThe Farm, Surrey
Genre
Length47:11
LabelAtlantic, WEA
ProducerChristopher Neil, Mike Rutherford
Mike + The Mechanics chronology
Mike + The Mechanics
(1985) 		Living Years
(1988) 		Word of Mouth
(1991)
Singles from Mike + The Mechanics
  1. "Nobody's Perfect"
    Released: 17 October 1988[3]
  2. "The Living Years"
    Released: 27 December 1988
  3. "Nobody Knows"
    Released: 3 April 1989 (UK)
  4. "Seeing Is Believing"
    Released: April 1989 (US)[4]

Living Years 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 Albums Chart.[5]

History

[edit]

Mike Rutherford began writing songs for the album in September 1987, shortly after the conclusion of Genesis's Invisible Touch Tour. However, he found himself immediately stricken with writer's block, a circumstance he attributes to stress over the complications with his wife's pregnancy, which endangered their child's life. The baby (Rutherford's third) was safely delivered in November, and Rutherford said that the relief made him feel "like a new man". In January he entered an extremely prolific songwriting period, and by the end of the month he had what he and producer/co-writer Christopher Neil felt was a good album's worth of material. In light of this, Neil wanted to move up the recording sessions, which had been scheduled for April. Rutherford vetoed the idea, however, and with his burst of inspiration still running, most of the songs that eventually appeared on the album were written over the next two months.[6]

The first single taken off the album, "Nobody's Perfect", did not perform as expected, peaking at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 80 in the UK, despite being used in a major advertising campaign in the latter territory. However, things changed dramatically with the next single off the album, "The Living Years", which was a worldwide hit, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week ending 25 March 1989 and number two in the United Kingdom, held off the top for three weeks over January and February 1989 by Marc Almond and Gene Pitney's reworking of "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart.". The song also reached number one on the Australian ARIA singles chart the week ending 13 May 1989.

The title song was co-written by Rutherford and BA Robertson, both of whose fathers had recently died. However, the lyrics were written solely by Robertson, and dealt with Robertson's strained relationship with his father and the birth of his son three months after his father's death.[citation needed] Paul Carrack, who would sing lead on the recording, had himself lost his father when he was only eleven years old,[7] and he continues to feature the song regularly in his solo performances.

A third single off the album, "Seeing is Believing", reached number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Phil Collins and Tony Banks, Rutherford's Genesis bandmates, made a guest appearance playing the riff on "Black & Blue" (a sample by Banks of Collins and Rutherford playing a riff during the Invisible Touch sessions).

The Living Years Deluxe Edition was released on 20 January 2014, featuring extensive liner notes by journalist Mario Giammetti, a new recording of the hit song with Andrew Roachford on vocals and a bonus CD of live and rare tracks.

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]

AllMusic's retrospective review summarised 'Slickly produced with rich vocals from Paul Carrack and Paul Young, The Living Years moves smoothly between anthemic ballads such as the title track and more up-beat numbers such as "Seeing Is Believing."' They commented that the album was inconsistent, however, at times venturing into genres that the group could not handle convincingly.[8]

Track listing

[edit]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Nobody's Perfect"BA Robertson, Mike Rutherford4:48
2."The Living Years"Robertson, Rutherford5:32
3."Seeing Is Believing"Robertson, Rutherford3:13
4."Nobody Knows"Christopher Neil, Rutherford4:24
5."Poor Boy Down"Neil, Rutherford4:33
6."Blame"Neil, Rutherford5:24
7."Don't"Neil, Rutherford5:45
8."Black & Blue"Robertson, Rutherford, Paul Young3:27
9."Beautiful Day"Neil, Rutherford, Young3:39
10."Why Me?"Robertson, Rutherford6:26
Total length:47:11

Personnel

[edit]

Mike + The Mechanics


Additional personnel

Production

[edit]
  • Christopher Neil – producer
  • Mike Rutherford – producer
  • Nick Davis – engineer
  • Paul Gomersall – assistant engineer
  • Terry Irwin – assistant engineer
  • Halpin Grey Vermeir – cover design
  • Geoff Halpin – photography
  • John Swannell – photography

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1989-90) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[9] 10
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[10] 10
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[11] 36
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[12] 16
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[13] 21
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[14] 11
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[15] 19
UK Albums (OCC)[16] 2
US Billboard 200[17] 13
Chart (1996) Peak
position
Scottish Albums (OCC)[18] 72
UK Albums (OCC)[19] 67

Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for Living Years
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[20] Platinum 70,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[21] Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[22] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[23] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "RIAA".
  2. ^ "BPI".
  3. ^ "Music Week" (PDF). p. 56.
  4. ^ "Great rock discography". p. 324.
  5. ^ Mike + the Mechanics UK charts history[permanent dead link‍], The Official Charts. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  6. ^ Neer, Dan and DeWitt Nelson (1988). Mike on Mike II [interview LP], Atlantic Recording Corporation.
  7. ^ Mike Rutherford Biography (Includes info on Mike and the Mechanics) Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  8. ^ a b Orens, G. (2011). "The Living Years – Mike + the Mechanics | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  9. ^ "Living Years". ARIA. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  10. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 6333". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  11. ^ "Living Years". Album Top 100. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  12. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Mike + The Mechanics – Living Years" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  13. ^ "Living Years". RMNZ. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  14. ^ "Living Years". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  15. ^ "Living Years". Schweizer Hitparade. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  16. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  17. ^ "Mike + Mechanics Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  19. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  20. ^ "Part of Mike and Mechanic's ARIA Albums chart history 1988 to 2022, received from ARIA in 2022". ARIA. Retrieved 3 December 2023 – via Imgur.com.
  21. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Mike & The Mechanics – The Living Years". Music Canada.
  22. ^ "British album certifications – Mike & The Mechanics – The Living Years". British Phonographic Industry.
  23. ^ "American album certifications – Mike & The Mechanics – The Living Years". Recording Industry Association of America.
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