Songfacts®:

• The "Mike" in Mike + the Mechanics is Mike Rutherford, best known for his work with Genesis. Every member of Genesis embarked on other projects, with the solo efforts of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins getting the most attention, but Rutherford did very well with with Mike + the Mechanics, whose biggest hit came in 1988 with "The Living Years."
• "If you write a great song, you want a great voice, and that voice isn't me," Mike Rutherford said in explaining why he didn't sing in the band.
  
  Rutherford used ex-Sad Cafe singer Paul Young (not to be confused with the Paul Young who sang "Every Time You Go Away"), for lead vocals on this track and three others from the album. Paul Carrack, known for his solo recordings and his work with Squeeze, sang on three other tracks. Young died in 2000 at age 53.
• "All I Need Is a Miracle" is part of the self-titled debut album from Mike + the Mechanics. Mike Rutherford, who played guitar and bass on the song, wrote it with Christopher Neil, who produced the album. The song is about a guy who treated his girl horribly and now wishes he had her back. It's a case of lyrical dissonance, as the jaunty beat belies the anguished storyline.
  
  When Songfacts asked Rutherford what he thinks about the guy in the song, he answered: "He's lazy and he's average."
• The video contains dialogue and follows a story arc where the band's manager needs a miracle to raise some cash so he can pay off a club owner. His shots are intercut with footage of the band performing at said club.
  
  The clip was directed by Jim Yukich, who did many of the Genesis videos.
• In the UK, this made #53 when it was first released, but did better when it was re-released in 1996, placing at #27.
• "All I Need Is a Miracle" came together through an unlikely pairing. Producer Christopher Neil, best known at the time for glossy pop hits with Sheena Easton and Dollar, was matched with Mike Rutherford. Their publishing company figured the contrast - the pop craftsman and prog-rock lifer from Genesis - might work. It did - they clicked right away.
  
  Rutherford's writing method played a key role. He was in the habit of keeping a cassette recorder running constantly, dumping half-formed ideas, melodic scraps, and rough sketches onto tape. When he handed Neil a cassette filled on both sides and said, "Pick out anything you like," it could've been overwhelming.
  
  Ordinarily, I'm not sure I'd have had the patience," Neil told The Guardian. "But I'd just done nine months in the studio with another artist, and I was knackered and my management had sent me away to a health farm in rural Sussex to rest up. I was bored by the third day, so I forensically went through the cassette."
• Rutherford already had the song's emotional core:
  
  All I need is a miracle
  All I need is you
  
  Neil loved it and, digging deeper, he uncovered what became the verse instrumentation and pre-chorus, then wrote most of the verses during his enforced downtime. When he returned, the two essentially welded the fragments together into a finished song.
• "All I Need Is a Miracle" is about regret. After treating his partner badly, she's walked out, and only afterward does the singer realize what he's done. Getting her back would take a miracle. On paper, it's bleak, but the music lifts it into something more ambiguous. Depending on the listener's mood, it can feel either heartbreaking or euphoric.
  
  "It's uplifting without being sugary, hopeful rather than smug," said Rutherford. "There's a bit of sadness in there. But there are some clever key changes, and it really lifts the audience."
• Although Rutherford hadn't lived through the exact scenario described in the song, it echoes a moment from his own life. Before he and his wife became a couple, she was close to getting engaged to someone else. As Genesis prepared for a US tour, Rutherford invited her along to "hang out." The rest is history.