"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, 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, 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. In 2004, "The Living Years" was awarded a 4-Million-Air citation by BMI.

Background

The song was inspired by Mike Rutherford and B.A. Robertson realizing their fathers had died around the same time, and they later learned singer Paul Carrack's father had died when he was young, as well. Rutherford said: Being of similar age, we both came from an era where our parents had lived through two world wars, when young men wanted to be like their fathers – wear the same clothes, do the same things. But then there was a huge change and our generation wanted to be anything but their fathers. It wasn't our parents' fault, there was just a big social change. Pop music had come along, The Beatles, denim trousers... for the first time, teens had their own culture. That's how our generation couldn't really talk to our parents in the same way. So we had the idea of writing a song about how you never really talk to your father, and you miss out on these things.

Music video

The music video was directed by Tim Broad and premiered in January 1989. It was filmed in October 1988 in West Somerset, England, near Porlock Weir and the hamlet of Culbone. The video features Mike Rutherford with his then-eight-year-old son, Tom. It also includes an appearance by actress Maggie Jones, best known for playing Blanche Hunt in the soap opera Coronation Street. The video also shows the group playing the song (with Paul Young playing keyboards), with two sets of choirs singing the chorus with them, an all-boys church choir and an adult choir.

Composition

The song is entirely in the key of A♭ Major.

Personnel

Mike + The Mechanics

Additional personnel

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Covers

There are alternative recordings of the song, instrumental as well as vocal, reggae to classical crossover, from artists as diverse as American country music band Alabama, Chris De Burgh, West End theatre star Michael Ball, Marcia Hines, Engelbert Humperdinck, James Last, The London Symphony Orchestra, Christian artist Russ Lee, Rhydian, John Tesh, Russell Watson, the London Community Gospel Choir, the Newsboys, The Isaacs, The Katinas, Japanese singer Kaho Shimada, Italian band Dik Dik and Michael English. Mike + The Mechanics band member Paul Carrack, who performed the original lead vocal, has made a number of solo interpretations. His father died in an industrial accident when Carrack was eleven, making the lyrics particularly poignant for him. It is still a mainstay of Carrack's live performances today.