The Way It Is | ||||
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![]() Album cover on the reissue | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 24, 1986 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1985–1986 | |||
Studio | ||||
Genre | Rock, soft rock | |||
Length | 43:12 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer | Bruce Hornsby, Huey Lewis, Elliot Scheiner | |||
Bruce Hornsby chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | B− [3] |
The Way It Is is Bruce Hornsby and the Range's debut album, released by RCA Records in 1986. Led by its hit title track, the album went on to achieve multi-platinum status and helped the group to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Other hits from the album include "Mandolin Rain" and "Every Little Kiss". Huey Lewis features on harmonica and vocals on "Down the Road Tonight". Lewis also co-produced the song, along with the tracks "The Long Race" and "The River Runs Low".
The original release of the album featured an impressionistic photograph on the cover of Bruce Hornsby playing an accordion. [4] It was originally targeted at the New Age music market and featured slightly different versions of the songs "Down the Road Tonight" and "The River Runs Low."
Once the album's tracks started to receive regular airplay on pop music stations in late 1986, the album was remixed and was re-released with a new sepia-toned cover featuring a photo of the band superimposed over a photo of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel in Virginia.
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "On the Western Skyline" | 4:42 |
2. | "Every Little Kiss" | 5:48 |
3. | "Mandolin Rain" | 5:19 |
4. | "The Long Race" | 4:26 |
5. | "The Way It Is" | 4:58 |
6. | "Down the Road Tonight" | 4:26 |
7. | "The Wild Frontier" | 4:04 |
8. | "The River Runs Low" | 4:28 |
9. | "The Red Plains" | 5:01 |
Tracks 2 and 5 written by Bruce Hornsby; all other songs written by Bruce Hornsby and John Hornsby. Track times are for the current release of the album. The opening of "Every Little Kiss" features an extended quotation from the opening of Movement III, The Alcotts, from Charles Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2.
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Every Little Kiss" | 6:27 |
2. | "The Long Race" | 6:02 |
3. | "The Way It Is (Solo Piano Intro)" | 7:07 |
4. | "The Way It Is" | 6:25 |
5. | "Mandolin Rain" | 6:31 |
6. | "The Red Plains" | 6:44 |
7. | "On the Western Skyline" | 6:19 |
Produced by DIR Broadcasting for the King Biscuit Flower Hour . Recorded live at The Ritz, New York City, February 2, 1987 by Effanel Music.
Bruce Hornsby and The Range
Additional personnel
Production
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Certifications
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