 "flying without wings" is a song released by irish boy band westlife from their self-titled debut studio album (1999). ==background== the song was written by wayne hector and steve mac. in an interview with hitquarters hector said the basic idea for the song came to him while on a break from working on a hip hop session with ezi cut in los angeles: "i came up with a couple of lines for the first verse and then phoned my mamaâs house, left it on the answering machine, and said, âdonât get rid of this!â"interview with wayne hector", hitquarters, 1 feb 2010. upon returning to england, hector went into the studio to work on the idea with long-time songwriting partner and producer steve mac. when the two discussed what the song was about they agreed that, "this is about our wives. this is about the things that make our lives complete." according to hector the lyrics were completed in about half an hour. ==commercial performance== the song became an instant hit in the united kingdom and many parts of the world. the song became the group's third uk number-one single, spending 13 weeks on charts. it is also one of westlife's biggest selling singles. the song has received a gold sales certification in the uk for over 400,000 copies sold. ==track listing== * united kingdom ; cd1 # "flying without wings" - 3:35 # "everybody knows" - 3:45 # "flying without wings" (video) - 3:40 ; cd2 # "flying without wings" - 3:35 # "that's what it's all about" - 3:20 # "flying without wings" (acappella) - 3:29 * australia # "flying without wings" - 3:35 # "
1999_singles 1999_songs 2003_singles American_Idol BoA_songs Cristian_Castro_songs Debut_singles Delta_Goodrem_songs Irish_Singles_Chart_number-one_singles Pop_ballads Ruben_Studdard_songs Singles_certified_gold_by_the_Recording_Industry_Association_of_America Song_recordings_produced_by_Steve_Mac Songs_from_PokA(c)mon Songs_written_by_Steve_Mac Songs_written_by_Wayne_Hector Sony_BMG_singles UK_Singles_Chart_number-one_singles Westlife_songs