Around the time that work commenced on
The Gift, Ure had hosted Danny Mitchell and Colin King of
Messengers at his house after he had engineered one of their sessions in
Glasgow. After they had departed, Ure was sifting through tapes for potential material to record when he found a demo that Mitchell had left behind. Ure then reworked the song and invited
Mark King of
Level 42 to play bass guitar on the song, having met each other in Swansea Top Rank for a
Radio One road show event. According to Ure, King "ended up playing the most simplistic bassline you could think of – it was incredibly basic for him. He showed great restraint by not slapping all over it." Ure selected "If I Was" to be the first single from
The Gift, believing that it was a "good pop song" that would "immediately establish the solo album as different from
Ultravox. It was either that or releasing one of the instrumental tracks." "If I Was" later peaked at number one in the UK and Ireland. ==Music video==