Fish released “Cliché” on Vigil album

Cliché Fish

Writer(s): Derek W. Dick, Hal Lindes, Mickey Simmonds (see lyrics here) Released: January 29, 1990 (as cut on Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors album) Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.61 video, 1.33 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Fish established himself as a giant of the prog world with his band Marillion in the ‘80s. After four albums with them, including the UK chart-topping Misplaced Childhood, he left for a solo career. He released his first album, Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors, in 1990. The album was supported by four singles, three of which reached the top 30 on the UK charts. The song, however, which garnered the most attention for me was “Cliché.” Despite not being released as a single, the song has proven popular. With more than a million plays on Spotify, it is second only to “A Gentleman’s Excuse Me,” one of the singles from Vigil, as his most-played song on the platform. In the All Music Guide review of the album, John Franck says of the song that it “is not only one of Fish’s greatest love songs, it’s also one of his most emotional.” AMG He goes on to say that while it doesn’t reach the “depths of despair” of Marillion classics like “Fugazi” and “Script for a Jester’s Tear,” “it’s equally compelling” AMG as “Fish veers in and out of Pink Floyd territory.” AMG Fish wrote it with his keyboardist Mickey Simmonds and guitarist Hal Lindes. The song uses the idea that saying “I love you” may sound cliché, but “it’s simply the best way.” The song is riddled with clichéd phrases like “for my best friend, my lover,” “I want to say that I need you, I miss you when you’re away” and “I find it hard to express the way I feel about you.” Astonishingly, though, Fish sings the lines in such a heartfelt manner that even though the song sounds like it could be written for anyone, it has a very personal feel to it. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Fish AMG All Music Guide review of Vigil by John Franck WK Wikipedia page for Vigil Related Links: First posted 4/3/2021; last updated 7/12/2022.