It's My Life (Talk Talk song)
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"It's My Life" is a song originally written and recorded by band Talk Talk. It was released as a single from their album It's My Life.
"It's My Life" was the first single from Talk Talk's second album in January 1984, which started their drift from straightforward New Romantic sound into more experimental albums. Both the song and the album are synthpop, but their instrumentation is richer than in the debut album. The single went #46 in UK charts - a relative disappointment - but reached #31 in the US charts, #33 in Germany, #25 in France and #7 in Italy (where Talk Talk had a huge success).
In 1990, "It's My Life" was reissued to promote the compilation Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk. This time, the song was a major hit in the UK Top 40, it charted at #13.
There are two versions of the video for "It's My Life." The first, envisioned by director Tim Pope as a statement against the banality of lip-synching, consists almost entirely of footage from nature documentaries, interspersed with shots of Talk Talk lead singer Mark Hollis standing in the midst of the London Zoo, with his mouth pointedly shut tight and often obscured by hand-drawn animated lines. The second version, recorded at the behest of EMI, consisted of the entirety of the original video projected on a green screen behind Hollis and his two bandmates as they lip-synched and mimed the song, deliberately poorly and with comic exaggerated gestures.
[edit] Cover version by No Doubt
| "It's My Life" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by No Doubt | ||
| from the album The Singles 1992-2003 | ||
| Released | December 30, 2003 | |
| Format | CD Single | |
| Genre | Pop rock | |
| Length | 3:45 | |
| Writer(s) | Tim Friese-Greene, Mark Hollis | |
| Producer(s) | Nellee Hooper, No Doubt | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| No Doubt singles chronology | ||
| "Running" (2003) |
"It's My Life" (2003) |
|
No Doubt recorded a cover version of the song to promote their compilation album The Singles 1992-2003. This cover version was again an international hit; it reached number 10 on the U.S. Hot 100, #20 on the UK Singles Chart, and #3 in Canada.
In the song's music video, Gwen Stefani murders her three bandmates: she poisons Tom Dumont, drives a car into Tony Kanal, and electrocutes Adrian Young by throwing a hairdrier into his bathtub. Scenes of Stefani's trial, her being carried away, and her electrocution appear throughout the video. At the end, the victims are shown alive and laughing as they watch the televised trial. The video was directed by David LaChapelle.
