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"King Midas in Reverse" is a song by the English pop rock band the Hollies.

Background
By the summer of 1967, the Hollies were feeling pressure to become more sophisticated with their music. Many other British Invasion acts had begun radically expanding into psychedelia, and the band were looking to build on their previous chart success while also appealing to an audience that was moving with the new direction of music. This particularly affected Graham Nash, who complained that the band's material was still "fairly simplistic" and that they "hadn't evolved like the Beatles had." Shortly after the release of the single "Carrie Anne" earlier in the year, Nash said in an interview with New Musical Express that it would be "the last of our really commercial singles", stating: "We are getting so commercial we are becoming uncommercial. It's time for The Hollies to re-group. I want to make records which say something."

Nash recalls writing "King Midas in Reverse" late at night in a hotel room in Split, Yugoslavia, while the Hollies were on a tour of Europe. The tune originated from an earlier melody that Allan Clarke had been working on but couldn't think of lyrics for. Tony Hicks said in an interview with Melody Maker published in October that he had "very little" to do with the song, although Nash told him that he inspired its title.

Nash considered it to be one of his first "real" songs, inspired by his failing marriage with Rose Eccles and the feeling of "outgrowing the band I loved and had spent my youth with."

As the Hollies began 1978 with their album A Crazy Steal failing to chart anywhere it was released, it looked as though the band were facing another frustrating year of meager commercial success. However, in June of that year, the band's former record company EMI began preparing a huge promotional campaign, built upon the success they had achieved in 1976 with the release of the Beach Boys' 20 Golden Greats compilation album.