Over My Shoulder by Mike + the Mechanics

Album: Beggar On A Beach Of Gold (1995)

Charted: 12

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Songfacts®:

Written by group leader Mike Rutherford and the song's vocalist Paul Carrack, "Over My Shoulder" is one of the biggest UK hits for Mike + The Mechanics. The song is about a guy who is looking back as his girl leaves him.
There is a great deal of lyrical dissonance in this song, as it's a very happy tune with heart-rending lyrics:

Cutting me up, deeper and deeper
Fills me with a sadness that I can't hide

In a Songfacts interview with Mike Rutherford, he said: "It's a weird song 'Over My Shoulder.' It was a huge hit in Europe and didn't quite happen in America. It's a sort of silly song, because there're nothing much to it. It's more about the drum machine and the guitars and the sound because the words are a little sad actually. But the song doesn't feel sad. When you play it on stage everyone's very up, so it's a funny mixture.

But it's such a unique song. I'm not saying it's good or bad, it's just often solidifying. It's a sort of foolish song really, but it seems to connect with the crowd."
Paul Carrack does some whistling on this song. He put that in as a placeholder for what was to be a saxophone or guitar solo, but when Rutherford heard it, he decided to leave it in.

Comments: 3

Susie from Emsworth U.k.Loved it then, love it now. Fabulous.
E Jones from Carmarthen Carrack's whistling interlude is up there with the mouth organ work that Stevie Wonder did on the Eurythmics There must be an angel playing with my heart, Fantastic.
Mitchell from Liverpool, UkThis became the first hit for Mike and the Mechanics to be co-written by their singer Paul Carrack. Although it didn't reach the UK top 10, it seems to still get played on the radio quite a lot.

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