How Am I Supposed To Live Without You

Album

Soul Provider

Label

Atlantic Records

Genre

Soft Rock

Composer(s)

Michael Bolton;Doug James

Entered Chart

Oct 28, 1989

Peak Date

Jan 20, 1990

Released

October 1989

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Columbia 73017

B-Side

Forever Eyes

Co-written by Bolton with Doug James, "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" is in the style of the soul songs of the '60s and '70s that often lamented the loss of a lover (like "Since I Lost My Baby" by The Temptations). Bolton did very well covering various soul ballads from this era. When Laura Branigan took this song to #12 in 1983, it marked Michael Bolton's first big hit as a songwriter. He was in the midst of a career transformation, having fronted the rock band Blackjack in 1979-1980 while still using his real name: Michael Bolotin. With Blackjack, he wrote the song "Love Me Tonight," which made #62 in 1979, but didn't crack the Hot 100 again until Branigan did "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You." Bolton would soon take matters into his own hands and become a soft rock superstar performing his own songs, but in the mid-'80s he was just trying to write some hits. He told Bruce Pollock around this time: "Right now I've got songs on about 12 or 13 albums. I have no idea whether they're gonna be sung well, whether they'll be produced well, whether any of them will even be singles. But I'm hoping for hits." Bolton released a self-titled solo album in 1983, the same year this song was a hit for Branigan, but it wasn't until his 1989 album Soul Provider, where he released his own version of this song, that his singing career took off. Bolton also co-wrote "I Found Someone," which topped out at #90 in 1986 for Branigan, but made #10 when Cher recorded it in 1988. This was the second single from Soul Provider (the title song was the first, peaking at #17). I was also Bolton's first #1 hit. He had another with "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1991. This song was originally offered to Air Supply to record. The group wanted to do it, but Clive Davis (executive producer and then-owner of Arista Records) wanted the chorus modified and Bolton didn't want any part of the song changed. As a result, Air Supply put the song on "indefinite hold." While Bolton was waiting for Air Supply to record it, he received word that Laura Branigan taped it - not from sheet music (the usual method) but from his demo tape. Branigan's version hit #12 on the Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary music chart. "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" earned Michael Bolton his first Grammy, taking Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 1990 ceremony. He won the same award two years later for "When A Man Loves A Woman." Bolton sings the hook as "Tell me how Black Friday deals are on a Monday" in a 2022 commercial for Walmart that's a takeoff on Office Space, a 1999 movie with a disgruntled character named Michael Bolton who is not a fan.

I could hardly believe it
When I heard the news today
I had to come and get it straight from you
They said you were leavin'
Someone's swept your heart away
From the look upon your face,
I see it's true
So tell me all about it
Tell me about the plans you're makin'
Then tell me one thing more before I go

Tell me how am supposed to live without you
Now that I've been lovin' you so long
How am I supposed to live without you
How am I supposed to carry on
When all that I've been livin 'for is gone

I didn't come here for cryin'
Didn't come here to breakdown
It's just a dream of mine is coming to an end
And how can I blame you
When I build my world around
The hope that one day we'd be so much
More than friends
And I don't wanna know the price I'm
Gonna pay for dreaming
When even now it's more than I can take