Michael Bolton – How Am I Supposed To Live Without You

The Song Clive Davis Wanted Changed And Bolton Refused

Released in October 1989 as the second single from Soul Provider, “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” became Michael Bolton’s first number one on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching the summit on January 13, 1990 and staying there for three consecutive weeks. The song also topped the Adult Contemporary chart and hit number three in the UK, number two in Canada, and peaked within the top ten across fourteen countries. What makes this achievement particularly remarkable is that Bolton had written the song seven years earlier in 1982 with Doug James, watched it become a hit for Laura Branigan in 1983, and was now reclaiming his own composition to become the first number one single of the 1990s. The track marked a turning point in Bolton’s career, transforming him from primarily a songwriter into a certified superstar performer at age thirty-six.

The single debuted on the Hot 100 in October 1989 and slowly climbed the chart through autumn and winter before finally hitting number one in mid-January. It spent fourteen weeks in the top forty and became the eighth bestselling single of 1990 in the United States. In Canada, the track reached number two on the RPM Top Singles chart and topped the Adult Contemporary chart for six weeks. The song achieved gold certification in the US on February 5, 1990, just three weeks after hitting number one. Bolton’s version competed against Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and Roxette’s “Listen to Your Heart,” outlasting both on the charts. The Soul Provider album itself peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and spent nearly four years on the chart, eventually achieving six-times platinum certification and selling over twelve million copies worldwide.

Bolton co-wrote “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” in 1982 with Doug James, crafting a heartfelt ballad about heartbreak and longing in the style of the soul songs from the sixties and seventies. The track was originally offered to Australian soft rock duo Air Supply, who wanted to record it, but Arista Records President Clive Davis requested permission to modify the chorus lyrics. Bolton refused to change a single word, and Davis let the song go, placing it on indefinite hold. While Bolton waited for Air Supply to make a decision, he received word that Laura Branigan had recorded the song, not from sheet music as was customary but directly from Bolton and James’ demo tape. Branigan never met the songwriters before recording it. Her version spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at number twelve on the Hot 100 in early October 1983, marking Bolton’s first significant hit as a songwriter.

Bolton recorded his own version during 1989 sessions for Soul Provider at several Los Angeles facilities including Lion Share Recording Studios and Alpha Studios in Burbank. Michael Omartian produced the track, handling keyboards and creating the polished ballad-style arrangement that gave Bolton’s signature raspy vocals plenty of space. The production featured Michael Landau on guitar, delivering the tasteful solo that appears midway through the four-minute-forty-nine-second album version. Mick Guzauski remixed the track for single release, editing it down to four minutes fourteen seconds for radio play. Bolton performed all vocals himself, letting the chorus land like a punch with each word ringing with the ache of loss. The arrangement was built for devotion rather than decoration, opening on a lone keyboard line with subtle synth pads and restrained percussion that emphasized emotion over technical flash.

Soul Provider was Bolton’s sixth studio album, released on June 19, 1989 by Columbia Records. The album transformed Bolton into a superstar after years of frustration. He’d started his career in 1969 at age fifteen as Michael Bolotin with his bar band the Nomads, released several unsuccessful hard rock albums through the seventies and early eighties, and fronted the rock band Blackjack from 1979 to 1980. By 1987’s The Hunger, he’d switched to watery quasi-soul ballads and found moderate success with covers including Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay,” which peaked at number eleven. Soul Provider spawned five top forty hits including “Soul Provider” reaching number seventeen, “How Can We Be Lovers” peaking at number three, and “When I’m Back On My Feet Again” hitting number seven. The album represented Bolton finding his lane as a performer of emotionally intense ballads that divided critics but connected with millions of listeners.

The song has been recorded by numerous artists across multiple languages and instrumental arrangements featuring piano, guitar, saxophone, pan flute, steel drum, and music box, becoming something of a modern pop standard. Bolton performed the track with Kenny G on a sold-out 1990 tour, combining the power ballad with G’s smooth jazz saxophone stylings. The song appeared in popular culture through television shows including Saved by the Bell, where a cover version played during Zack and Kelly’s breakup scene, embedding the track in millennial nostalgia. Bolton himself parodied the song in a 2022 Walmart commercial spoofing the film Office Space, singing the hook as tell me how Black Friday deals are on a Monday. Laura Branigan’s original 1983 version received renewed attention in the nineties and remained available on compilation albums including The Best of Branigan and The Platinum Collection.

At the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards in February 1990, Bolton won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You,” his first Grammy. He would win the same award two years later for his cover of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.” The single’s success led to Bolton being named one of the first male solo artists to reach number one on the Hot 100 with a song he’d written and produced himself. Philip Rose and Greg Gold directed the song’s music video, which opened with Bolton seated in his softly lit living room singing directly to the camera, with gentle fade-outs revealing snapshots of a deteriorating relationship. The video featured Bolton with packed suitcases by the door, remembering tender moments before returning to his girlfriend’s side, then a subsequent fight that sends her storming out. Looking back, Bolton’s reclamation of his own composition seven years after Laura Branigan’s hit stands as vindication for his refusal to compromise with Clive Davis, proof that sometimes protecting your original vision leads to the breakthrough you’ve been chasing for decades.