If I Was
"If I Was" is a song by the Scottish musician Midge Ure. It was co-written by Ure and Danny Mitchell and released as the first single from Ure's debut solo studio album, The Gift. The song reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for one week in September 1985. The track also reached number one in Ireland and peaked within the top 20 in eight other countries.
Background
Around the time that work commenced on The Gift, Ure had hosted Danny Mitchell and Colin King of Messengers at his house after he had engineered one of their sessions in Glasgow. After they had departed, Ure was sifting through tapes for potential material to record when he found a demo that Mitchell had left behind. Ure then reworked the song and invited Mark King of Level 42 to play bass guitar on the song, having met each other in Swansea Top Rank for a Radio One road show event. According to Ure, King "ended up playing the most simplistic bassline you could think of – it was incredibly basic for him. He showed great restraint by not slapping all over it."Ure selected "If I Was" to be the first single from The Gift, believing that it was a "good pop song" that would "immediately establish the solo album as different from Ultravox. It was either that or releasing one of the instrumental tracks." "If I Was" later peaked at number one in the UK and Ireland.