The Life of Riley (song)

"The Life of Riley" is a song by British band The Lightning Seeds. It was released in 1992 from the album Sense.

"The Life of Riley"
Single by The Lightning Seeds
from the album Sense
Released2 March 1992 (1992-03-02)
GenrePop rock
LabelVirgin
Songwriter(s)Ian Broudie
Producer(s)Ian Broudie
Simon Rogers
The Lightning Seeds singles chronology
"Joy"
(1990)		 "The Life of Riley"
(1992)		 "Sense"
(1992)

The song was a minor hit when it was first released on 2 March 1992, reaching number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. However the song later gained popularity when the BBC football programme, Match of the Day, began to use it frequently for segments including "Goal of the Month", throughout most of the 1990s.[1] The song was still associated with the programme many years later and featured in a similar "Goal of the Day" segment in the mid-2000s.[2]

The writer of the song, Ian Broudie, cites his son Riley as the namesake of the piece. The song title has also been used by the band for their greatest hits album, Life of Riley: The Lightning Seeds Collection. A remix of "The Life of Riley" appeared on the single "Sense", and an instrumental version appeared on "Change". The single was also later reissued.[3]

The song also appears to have influenced the Bruce Springsteen single "We Take Care of Our Own", released in January 2012. Broudie's song may in turn bear the influence of a more raucous track, 1979's "Life of Riley" by Cardiff band Zipper, released on Virgin (the same label as the Lightning Seeds) and written by bassist Andy Brice. It also bears melodic similarity to Burt Bacharach's "Always Something There To Remind Me".

Track listing
  1. "The Life of Riley"
  2. "Something in the Air"
  3. "Marooned"

Charts
Chart Position
UK Singles Chart[4] 28
US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[5] 2
US Billboard Hot 100[5] 98
German Singles Chart[6] 52

References
  1. Davies, Laura Lee (9 October 2004). "Resowing the seeds". The Times. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  2. "Ask us about: Music details". BBC News. 18 July 2006. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  3. "Sense". lightning-seeds.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  4. "The Life of Riley". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  5. "The Lightning Seeds chart history". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  6. "The Lightning Seeds chart history". laurentpons.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
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