How Am I Supposed to Live Without You

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.