Waking Hours is the second studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Del Amitri, released in July 1989 by A&M Records. It reached number 6 in the UK Albums Chart and featured one of the band's most famous songs, "Nothing Ever Happens", which reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart. The album's opening track, "Kiss This Thing Goodbye", entered the top 40 of the US Billboard Hot 100 when released as a single for the second time. History Many Del Amitri fans consider Waking Hours to be the band's first "real" album. The post-punk influence of the first album, Del Amitri (1985), had produced a sound radically different to the remainder of the band's output. The first album had been extremely difficult to find for many years, before its 2003 CD reissue, leaving many who became fans in the 1990s totally unaware of its existence. Waking Hours arguably represents Del Amitri's first "mature" record, and was certainly the first to bring them any mainstream success. Typically for Del Amitri (the group never made two albums with the same band members), Waking Hours featured some recently introduced personnel: new guitarist Mick Slaven and keyboard player Andy Alston, who would become a full member after the album's release. Despite some important creative input (he contributed to the writing of "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" and "Hatful Of Rain") Slaven left the band before the album had even been released and was replaced by David Cummings. It would also be the last record for drummer Paul Tyagi, who was replaced by Brian McDermott. Both Cummings and McDermott appear on the album's front cover despite not having played on it. Recording On the heels of a US tour in 1986, where Del Amitri had absorbed classic rock radio and picked up a diverse range of musical influences, the band began a musical evolution during an intensive period of songwriting. From taking inspiration from band's such as the Fall, the Smiths, R.E.M. and the Feelies, they now started listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, John Mellencamp as well as country-influenced artists like Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett. "We always said that our "transformation" from indie art pop to mainstream pop rock was a natural thing," singer and bassist Justin Currie said in 2010. "Iain [Harvie] and I started writing separately instead of with the rest of the band, and our stuff