Not Ace, Not Squeeze: The Other Paul Carrack Band You May Have Forgotten

Paul Carrack is a rock 'n' roll journeyman so versatile and musically evolving that he's played in numerous high-profile bands. Most famously, he sang and played keyboards for '70s one-hit wonder Ace, who hit No. 3 in 1975 with "How Long," and then joined Squeeze for a visible and successful run in the 1980s. But after singing on the band's big hit, "Tempted," Carrack pursued other opportunities, including a spot in one of the best rock supergroups of all time. They're largely forgotten now, or at least Carrack's involvement has been overlooked, but Mike + the Mechanics was a very popular act for a big chunk of the late '80s.

After some session playing and bouncing through stints with Roxy Music and Eric Clapton, Carrack found one of his longest-term gigs. Best known as a side project for a member of Genesis, this band routinely ran up the charts for a while. Here's the story of Paul Carrack's other band, Mike + the Mechanics.

MIke Rutherford, the guitarist for progressive turned pop-rock Genesis, created a new group while his bandmate, Phil Collins, enjoyed his '80s solo stint. Along with Paul Young, best known for the No. 1 smash "Everytime You Go Away," Rutherford snagged the services of Paul Carrack. He sang a demo recording of "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)," which his friend, B.A. Robertson, had written with Rutherford. He wound up performing the track that went on the 1985 self-titled debut album attributed to Mike + the Mechanics. The spooky, unsettling dystopian synth-pop curiosity became the first of two Top 10 hits from the LP, along with the inspirational and emotional '80s love song "All I Need is a Miracle." 

The songs were so popular that Mike + the Mechanics moved from studio creation into live acts, and Carrack toured with the band and contributed more to their next album. Carrack's expressive vocals powered the title track on the 1988 LP "The Living Years." The devastating song is about an individual's wish that they could've resolved their issues with their now-deceased father. Evidently highly and heartbreakingly relatable, "The Living Years" went all the way to No. 1 in 1989.

Mike + the Mechanics occasionally reunited when its members' busy schedules aligned and released albums throughout the '90s and 21st century, both with and without Carrack. But none generated huge singles the way they did when Carrack was at the fore in the '80s.