"Kayleigh" is a song by British

neo-prog Neo-progressive rock (commonly abbreviated neo-prog) is a subgenre of progressive rock that developed in the UK in the early 1980s. The genre's most popular band, Marillion, achieved mainstream success in the decade. Several bands from the ge ...

band

Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...

. It was released as the first single from the

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

'' Misplaced Childhood''. It is the band's most successful single in the UK, where it peaked at number two and stayed on the UK singles chart for 14 weeks. It also became the band's most successful single worldwide, reaching the top 10 in Ireland, Norway, and West Germany. In the United States, it gave the band their sole appearance on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, reaching number 74 in October 1985. The song popularised the name Kayleigh in the UK. It was later performed by the band's lead singer,

Fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

, with Midge Ure on guitar and

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

on drums.

Composition

"Kayleigh" has been characterised as a "tremulous torch song".

, the band's lead singer and lyricist, said that writing the lyrics was "his way of apologizing to some of the women he had dated in the past." Although he had at one point dated a woman whose forenames were Kay Lee, the song was more a composite of several women with whom he had had relationships. Fish told ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

'' in 2014, "I'd wanted to write a song about a girlfriend I'd split up with, whose name was Kay. Which of course we couldn't do. So we added her middle name, Lee, and it became Kayleigh instead." Fish was quoted:

I was very confused at the time, you know, I had a lot of long term relationships, a lot of 'deep and meaningful' relationships that basically I'd wrecked because I was obsessed with the career and where I wanted to go. I was very, very selfish and I just wanted to be the famous singer but I was starting to become aware of the sacrifices that I was making, and I think that Kay was one of those sacrifices that went along the road. 'Kayleigh' was not just about one person; it was about three or four different people. The 'stilettos in the snow', that was something that happened in
Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...
, when I can remember going down one night and we were both really drunk, and, you know, dancin' under a street light, and 'dawn escapes from moon-washed college halls' was part of the Cambridge thing.

According to

Steve Rothery Steven Rothery (born 25 November 1959) is an English musician who is the original guitarist and the longest continuous member of the progressive rock band Marillion. Outside Marillion, Rothery has recorded two albums as part of the duo The Wis ...

, the guitar hook line through the verse came from demonstrating to his 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. The album version contained an extended guitar solo by Rothery, 27 seconds of which is edited for the single version. On 24 October 2012,

announced on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

that "Sad news via Fish – Kay – who inspired our song Kayleigh – has sadly died. RIP Kay."

Release

"Kayleigh" entered the UK singles chart on 18 May 1985 and climbed to the number two position. It was kept from number one by a version of "

You'll Never Walk Alone "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical '' Carousel''. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and e ...

" by the charity supergroup the Crowd in June 1985, which was released following the

Bradford City stadium fire The Bradford City stadium fire occurred during a Football League Third Division match on Saturday 11 May 1985 at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, killing 56 spectators and injuring at least 265. The stadium was k ...

. As with all Marillion albums and singles of the Fish period, the cover art was designed by Mark Wilkinson from an idea by Fish. The B-side on the international version, "

Lady Nina "Lady Nina" is a song by the British neo-prog band Marillion. First released in 1985 on the B-side to the #2 UK hit single " Kayleigh", it was the only single from the EP '' Brief Encounter'' released in the United States by Capitol Records in A ...

", would go on to be used as a single promoting the 1986 US-only mini album ''

Brief Encounter ''Brief Encounter'' is a 1945 British Romance film#Romantic drama, romantic drama film directed by David Lean from a screenplay by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play ''Still Life (play), Still Life''. The film stars Celia Johnson and ...

''. "Lady Nina" is the only Marillion song from the Fish era to use a

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

. The US version of the single uses " Heart of Lothian" instead, another track from ''Misplaced Childhood'' that would eventually be released as the third and final single from the album. A CD replica of the single was also part of a collectors box-set released in July 2000 which contained Marillion's first 12 singles and was re-issued as a 3-CD set in 2009 (see '' The Singles '82–'88'').

Music video

The promotional video for the single was shot in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, where the '' Misplaced Childhood'' album was recorded. 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, appeared in the video.

Legacy

The song's popularity in mid-1985 was responsible for a significant rise in popularity of the name Kayleigh. Its popularity and legacy was addressed by Harry Wallop, writing in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' in 2011:

Some names just didn't exist a generation ago, but have taken off in popularity. The most famous of these is Kayleigh, which came into existence thanks to the neo-prog rock band Marillion, who had a number two hit with a single of this name in 1985. It was almost unheard of before the song. But since then it has taken hold, especially with parents who grew up with a love of long-haired bouffant
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Balla ...
s. A few years ago, the name made it to the 30th most popular girl's name in Britain, and it remains popular: 267 children were named it last year. Curiously, though, it has spawned a bewildering sub-sect of names, nearly all of which are unrelentingly bizarre. There were 101 Demi-Leighs last year, seven Chelsea-Leighs and four called Lilleigh, which sounds like a sanitary product.

In 2012, it was announced that the

Scottish Borders Council The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the ...

was to inscribe extracts from the song's lyrics into the pavement at the newly developed Market Square in

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...

. Council engineer David Johnstone said the authority felt it was appropriate to mark the links between Galashiels and the song:

The lyrics from the song Kayleigh included reference to the old textiles college. Some of the lyrics referred to 'dawn escapes from moon-washed college halls' and 'do you remember cherry blossom in the market square?' There was a feeling that these lyrics were really appropriate and because of the connection between the singer and Galashiels that it would be appropriate to engrave some of those lyrics into the paving and make more of a feature of it." Johnstone also said the original cherry trees referred to in the song had been removed due to disease but they would be replaced.''

In 2013, in a presentation on

crowd funding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial ...

for a TED conference in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

, Marillion keyboardist

Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, retired astronaut, and former United States Navy, naval officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from Arizona, a seat he ha ...

identified the song's popularity as "part of the reason I've never had a proper job and I've been able to make a living from music for the past 32 years". In a 2021 interview about ''Weltschmerz'', which Fish described as his final album, he said that "I'm never going to be playing stadiums or arenas again. And I definitely don't want to be on the chicken-in-a-basket circuit singing fucking 'Kayleigh'."

Track listings

International 7-inch version :A. "Kayleigh" – 3:33 :B. "Lady Nina" – 3:41 US 7-inch version :A. "Kayleigh" – 3:33 :B. "Heart of Lothian" – 3:47 12-inch versions :A1. "Kayleigh" (alternative mix) – 3:57 :A2. "Kayleigh" (extended version) – 4:00 :B1. "Lady Nina" (extended version) – 5:46 ''The Singles 82-88'' # "Kayleigh" – 3:33 # "Lady Nina" – 3:41 # "Kayleigh" (alternative mix) – 3:57 # "Kayleigh" (extended version) – 4:00 # "Lady Nina" (extended version) – 5:46

Personnel

– vocals *

– guitars *

– keyboards *

Pete Trewavas Peter Trewavas (born 15 January 1959) is an English musician, best known as the bassist of the progressive rock band Marillion. He joined in 1982, replacing Diz Minnitt, while acting as a backing vocalist and occasional guitarist. Biography ...

– bass *

Ian Mosley Ian F. Mosley (born 16 June 1953) is an English drummer. He is best known for his long-time membership of the neo-prog band Marillion, which he joined for their second album, ''Fugazi'', released in 1984. He had previously been an in-demand ses ...

– drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1985 songs 1985 singles 1980s ballads Marillion songs EMI Records singles Rock ballads Song recordings produced by Chris Kimsey Songs written by Fish (singer) Songs written by Ian Mosley Songs written by Mark Kelly (keyboardist) Songs written by Pete Trewavas Songs written by Steve Rothery Torch songs