Alone Again (Naturally)

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"Alone Again (Naturally)" is a song by the Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. It was released in 1972, and in total spent six weeks at No.1 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In Casey Kasem's American 'Top 40 of the 1970s', "Alone Again (Naturally)" was #5 (Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" was #1). The track reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart.^[1]

It is a poignant ballad, starting with the singer telling of his plans to commit suicide after being left at the altar, and then telling about the death of his parents. O'Sullivan has said that the song is not autobiographical, as he did not know his father (who died when O'Sullivan was 11) very well, and that his father had mistreated his mother.^[2] "Alone Again (Naturally)" is included on O'Sullivan's The Berry Vest of Gilbert O'Sullivan album (2004) on the EMI record label. Big Jim Sullivan plays the guitar break in the original recorded version of the song.

The landmark 1991 copyright case Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records, Inc. centered on the unauthorized use of a sample from "Alone Again (Naturally)" by rapper Biz Markie.

[edit] Contemporary usage of the song

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It was featured in the soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola film, The Virgin Suicides.
In The Simpsons episode - The Wettest Stories Ever Told, "Alone Again (Naturally)" features in Homer's tale which is a spoof of The Poseidon Adventure. In the scene, Comic Book Guy turns on a radio to hear the song being played. It also formed the basis for the episode name "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily".
The Sugar Ray song "Fly" alludes to O'Sullivan's lyric "65 years old / My mother, God rest her soul," amending the number to "25" (presumably, in this case, the age of the speaker rather than that of his mother).
The song was also covered by the band 58, a side project of Mötley Crüe bassist, Nikki Sixx. ^[3]
Singer Vonda Shepard covered the song in a 2001 episode of Ally McBeal.
It was featured during a scene in Stuart Little 2 when Stuart drives his sports car in the hallway of his school.
Two of O'Sullivan's more famous songs, "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Get Down", were used in the opening and closing credits (respectively) of the Japanese Anime, Maison Ikkoku. Because the songs were used without authorisation it caused a minor uproar and only episode 24 featured them, after which the previous songs replaced them. Because of copyright reasons they have not been included with any home video releases outside of Japan. Alone Again (Naturally) also apperars in episode 27.
"Alone Again (Naturally)" is played during the episode, including footage of a TV performance by O'Sullivan, and again during the end credits of Episode 4 of the second series of the BBC One drama series Life on Mars.
Singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone did a version of "Alone Again Naturally" on her album Fodder On My Wings (1982). The lyrics were however completely different, talking about the death of Simone's father.
In the film Love Actually, Colin Firth makes a reference to O’Sullivan's song title. The scene shows Firth’s love interest leaving his life, to which he responds “Alone Again” (Pause) “Naturally”.
In the 2003 film Stuck on You, "Alone Again (Naturally)" played after the conjoined twins Bob (Matt Damon) and Walt (Greg Kinnear) were surgically separated.

It also appears at the end of the Har Mar Superstar Album, The Handler, a very groovy version but still capturing the sinister tone of the lyrics

Tiki Dayan, an Israeli singer and actress, performed a Hebrew version of the song translated by Ehud Manor. This version features in the Israeli channel 10 TV series of מתי נתנשק (when do we kiss).
Django Bates recorded the song with a string quartet and singer Josefine Lindstrand on the album "You Live and Learn... (Apparently)".
The song was used in the 2007 Korean movie "Two Faces of My Gilfriend" (Doo Eol-gool-eui Yeo-chin), first when Anni leaves Guchang and also during the end credits. It was also used in the 2007 film I Could Never Be Your Woman during a scene where the protagnists' show has been cancelled and the sets are being taken apart and thrown away.