"I Want My Life Back" is the title of a song written by Frank Myers

Frank J. Myers

Frank Joseph Myers is an American country music singer, songwriter and record producer. In his career, he has written songs for John Michael Montgomery, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Lonestar and others...

 and Anthony L. Smith, and recorded by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Bucky Covington

Bucky Covington

William Joel "Bucky" Covington III is an American country music singer. He placed eighth on the 5th season of the Fox Network's talent competition series American Idol. In December 2006, he signed a recording contract with Lyric Street Records...

. It was released in April 2009 as the fourth single of his career, and the lead-off single to his second studio album, I'm Alright.

Content

"I Want My Life Back" is a ballad, backed primarily with percussion, strings, and steel guitar. The narrator describes a homeless man he meets, who doesn't want food or money, but instead longs for the pleasures of life that were taken away from him (such as his job and his home).

Reception

The song has received mixed reviews from critics. Matt Bjorke of Roughstock commented that the song was the best single Bucky Covington has released. "The melody suits the mood of the lyrics and Miller and Oliver’s production never gets in the way of the lyric and while the song is a thoroughly modern affair, it retains enough traditionally Country elements to not ever confuse the song as anything but a Country song." Country Universe was not as positive, and gave the song an F rating. "The homeless man in this song exists solely to help the song make its point - he’s so committed to it, in fact, that he turns down food money in order to recite the words to the bombastic chorus. After that, the homeless man’s words serve to inspire the narrator to realize, as all regretful men in pop-country singles do, that his pride and temper are what killed his previous relationship, and that he now wants his girl back."

Chart performance

"I Want My Life Back" debuted at number 58 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

chart for the week of April 18, 2009. The song entered the Top 40 of the country charts for the chart week of May 29, 2009 and reached a peak of number 32 in June 2009. >

Chart (2009)	Peak Position