The Life of Riley (song)

"The Life of Riley" is a pop song by the British band The Lightning Seeds. It was released in 1992 with the album Sense.

The song was a minor hit when it was first released on 2 March 1992, reaching number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. However the song later gained popularity when the BBC football programme, Match of the Day, began to use it frequently for segments including "Goal of the Month" - as such the song is still frequently heard at football grounds and associated with the segment many years later.

The writer of the song, Ian Broudie, cites his son Riley as the namesake of the piece. The song title has also been used by the band for their greatest hits album, Life of Riley: The Lightning Seeds Collection. A remix of "The Life of Riley" appeared on the single "Sense", and an instrumental version appeared on "Change". The single was also later reissued.

A cover of the song by Willie Dowling - Jackdaw 4 was used as the theme to the 2009 BBC television sitcom, Life of Riley. The trailers for the show used the original Lightning Seeds version.