George Best, the debut album from the Wedding Present, was released in November 1987. Among its twelve tracks were two songs that had previously been released as singles – My Favourite Dress (February ’87) and Anyone Can Make A Mistake (October ’87) – although it must be pointed out that the album version of My Favourite Dress was a different recording.
The album was a relative success, reaching #47 in the charts, which wasn’t too shabby given it was issued on Reception Records, the band’s own label and there wasn’t a huge amount of money set aside for marketing and promotion beyond basic adverts in the UK music papers. Bands on major record labels would probably have found themselves being in the situation of being asked to lift another single from the album, maybe a month or six weeks after its initial release, as a way of giving sales a further shot in the arm.
This would have been counterproductive for TWP in that most, if not all their fan base, would have already likely purchased the album, while there was also the risk of the music press turning against the band with the accusation of ripping off said fans – at the very least there would have been missives from disgruntled punters printed in the letters section, regardless of whether such letters were genuine or the figment of the imaginations of journalists seeking to start a row.
It meant that Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm, the band’s next single, released in January 1988, was a previously unreleased song.
Which also means the world was denied this bona fide classic ever being made available as a stand-alone 45:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – A Million Miles
It’s that rare TWP thing from that era – a storyline in which the male protagonist gets the girl. It kind of is like a fairytale, given that for most of us, the scenario which plays out in How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths (so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own) was surely far more common than catching the eye of someone who not only returns a smile but is soon happy to chat with you and to agree to your suggestion that you walk her home given the absence of the friend she had come along with.
And the middle verse of the protagonist excitedly calling a friend all about it, possibly the next morning…..genius!
It is a delightful song in every possible sense of the word, lyrically and musically. Almost forty years on, it remains one of the most popular TWP songs of them all, and is still aired to great effect in the live shows. It would have been a great single, but it wouldn’t have made the mainstream charts.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
TWP at this stage were unstoppable.
An aside… I just saw the sidebar notification re: blogs and ICAs. Thank you for taking the time to attempt to recover the blog links and for your sterling work in actualising the return of the ICA links.
Mammoth tasks, appreciated.
Flimflamfan
An absolute belter, still sounds fantastic.
Peak Weddoes
I think there was a plan to issue A Million Miles as a single as promo 7″s were pressed. They are very rare and fetch a small fortune on Discogs and the like these days.
When I saw them live for the first time (my very first gig, at the age of 17, October 1988) it was shortly after Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm had come out, and they were already promoting their next single Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?). Anyway, throughout the show, audience members repeatedly shouted for A Million Miles, and when it was eventually played, it elicited a frenzied reaction, so it was always a big fan favourite. And rightly so.
Everything about the song is perfect, especially the “…at least not yet” ending.
It’s one of my favorite TWP songs. Great pick