| "Kayleigh" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Marillion | ||||
| from the album Misplaced Childhood | ||||
| B-side | "Lady Nina" [1] | |||
| Released | 7 May 1985 | |||
| Format | 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl [1] | |||
| Recorded | Hansa Ton Studios, Berlin, March — May 1985 | |||
| Genre | Neo-progressive rock Soft rock |
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| Length | 3:33 (7" version) [1] | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Writer(s) | music: Mark Kelly, Ian Mosley, Steve Rothery, Pete Trewavas lyrics: Fish |
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| Producer | Chris Kimsey | |||
| Marillion singles chronology | ||||
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"Kayleigh" was a number two UK hit for British neo-progressive rock band Marillion in 1985.[2] It remains the group's most successful single in terms of chart position. The single was kept from the UK Number 1 spot by charity single "You'll Never Walk Alone" by supergroup The Crowd in the summer of 1985. It also made the top 10 in Ireland, Norway and France. "Kayleigh" is the band's sole appearance on the USA's Billboard Hot 100, hitting #74 in 1986.[3]
The song received a great deal of media exposure in the UK. 41 Independent Local Radio stations in Britain had the track A-rated on their playlists and it became the most played single on BBC Radio 1. The band also made appearances on television shows such as Wogan and Top of the Pops. The song was also featured on the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV on the fictional in-game station "Vice City FM" and in the movie Late Night Shopping.
The promotional video for the single was shot in Berlin, where the Misplaced Childhood album was recorded, and featured Tamara Nowy, a German woman who subsequently married lead singer Fish, and Robert Mead, the boy portrayed on the sleeve of the album and the single. The song was performed by Fish at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at Wembley Stadium, with Midge Ure on guitar and Phil Collins on drums.
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Fish has said that his writing the song was 'his way of apologizing to some of the women he had dated in the past.' Although the lead singer and lyricist of the band, Fish, had at one point dated a woman whose forenames were Kay Lee, the song was more a composite of several different women with whom he had had relationships.
The guitar hook line through the verse came about, according to Steve Rothery, from him demonstrating to his then girlfriend what effects a chorus and a delay pedal could add to a guitar's sound. Rothery recorded the song on a chorused Stratocaster guitar, using the pick and his second and third fingers to play it.[4]
In late 2005, 96% of Kayleighs living in the United Kingdom were born after 1985. It seems likely that the song had inspired the rise in popularity of the name, and studies of girls' first names show that it was not in the top 100 most popular names in Scotland before 1975. By 1997, however, twelve years after the song's release, the name was the 30th most popular girls' name in the country. By 2001, Kayleigh had become the 75th most popular girls' name in England and Wales.
Regarding "Kayleigh", Fish has had the following to say [1]:
| Chart (1985) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart[2] | 2 |
| Dutch GfK chart[5] | 12 |
| Dutch Top 40[6] | 16 |
| French Singles Chart | 2 |
| Irish Singles Chart[7] | 4 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart[8] | 8 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[9] | 19 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[3] | 74 |
| US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[3] | 14 |
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