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."
Contents
Releases
The original release of the album featured an impressionistic photograph on the cover of Bruce Hornsby playing an accordion. 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 on December 20, 1986, with a new sepia-toned cover featuring a photograph of the band superimposed over an image of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel in Virginia.
Track listing
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.
Live: The Way It Is Tour 1986–87
Produced by DIR Broadcasting for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. Recorded live at The Ritz, New York City, February 2, 1987 by Effanel Music.
Personnel
Bruce Hornsby and The Range
Bruce Hornsby – vocals, grand piano, synthesizer, hammered dulcimer, accordion
David Mansfield – guitar, mandolin, violin
George Marinelli – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals
Joe Puerta – bass, backing vocals
John Molo – drums, percussion
Additional personnel
Huey Lewis – harmonica, backing vocals on "Down the Road Tonight"
John Gilutin and Sean Hopper – synthesizer consultants
Jeff Gerson – enforcement
Production
Paul Atkinson – executive producer
Bruce Hornsby – producer (1–3, 5, 7, 9)
Elliot Scheiner (for Trackman, Inc.) – producer (1–3, 5, 7, 9)
Huey Lewis – producer (4, 6, 8)
Ivy Skoff – production assistant
Marge Meoli – A&R coordinator
Ted Raess – art direction, design
Kathy Hornsby – art consultant
Aaron Rapoport – photography