The Way It Is | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() 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 | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | B− [3] |
The Way It Is is the debut album by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, released by RCA Records in 1986. Led by its hit title track, the album achieved multi-platinum status and contributed to the group winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Other notable tracks from the album include "Mandolin Rain" and "Every Little Kiss". Huey Lewis appears on harmonica and provides vocals on "Down the Road Tonight." Lewis also co-produced this track, along with "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 initially aimed at the New Age music market and included slightly different versions of the songs "Down the Road Tonight" and "The River Runs Low."
As the album's tracks began to receive regular airplay on pop music stations in late 1986, it was remixed and subsequently re-released with a new sepia-toned cover featuring a photograph of the band superimposed over an image of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel in Virginia.
All tracks are written by Bruce Hornsby and John Hornsby, except where noted.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "On the Western Skyline" | 4:42 | |
2. | "Every Little Kiss" | Bruce Hornsby | 5:48 |
3. | "Mandolin Rain" | 5:19 | |
4. | "The Long Race" | 4:26 | |
5. | "The Way It Is" | Bruce Hornsby | 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 |
The track times listed are for the current release of the album. The opening of "Every Little Kiss" features an extended quotation from the beginning of Movement III, The Alcotts, from Charles Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
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
|