Alone Again (Naturally)

"Alone Again (Naturally)" is a song by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. It was released in 1972 at the same time as, but not included on, the album, "Back to Front". In total, the single spent six weeks, non-consecutively, at No. 1 on the United States "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart. "Billboard" ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1972. In Casey Kasem's American Top 40 of the 1970s, "Alone Again (Naturally)" ranked as the fifth most-popular song of the decade (Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" was No. 1). "Alone Again (Naturally)" also spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart. The track reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.
Lyrics.
"Alone Again (Naturally)" is an introspective ballad, starting with the singer contemplating suicide after being left at the altar after his bride deserted him, 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. Also, his mother was still alive when the song was written. O'Sullivan later commented “Neil Diamond covered "Alone Again (Naturally)" and said he couldn't believe a 21-year-old wrote it, but for me it was just one song I had written”. Neil Sedaka was similarly effusive in his praise for the song, stating as he covered the song in 2020 that he wished that he himself had written the song because its complexity was more typical of a man much older than 21. The song 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.
Copyright lawsuit.
Grand Upright Music, Ltd v. Warner Bros. Records Inc., 780 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1991), was a copyright case heard by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case pitted singer/songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan against rapper Biz Markie after Biz Markie sampled O'Sullivan's song "Alone Again (Naturally)". The court ruled that sampling without permission can qualify as copyright infringement. The judgment changed the hip hop music industry, requiring that any future music sampling be preapproved by the original copyright owners to avoid a lawsuit.
Maison Ikkoku.
This song, along with another one of O'Sullivan's songs, "Get Down", were featured as the opening and ending for episode 24 of the Japanese anime hit "Maison Ikkoku". At the time, O'Sullivan was signed to production company Kitty Film's associated record label, Kitty Records, which wanted to use the anime's popularity as a way to promote the singer's career in Japan. According to series director Kazuo Yamazaki, the reason the songs were dropped after only one episode was that they were unpopular with viewers; due to copyright issues, they were not included on the English-language American release of the anime, replaced by the previously used Japanese theme songs. The anime was based upon the popular manga of the same name by Rumiko Takahashi.
The song was also used as the ending theme for the 1986 live-action Maison Ikkoku film, "Apartment Fantasy".
Notable cover versions.
Many artists have covered the song. Among the more notable are a version by Nina Simone, included as a bonus track on the 1988 digital reissue of her 1982 album "Fodder on My Wings"; and a version by Lazlo Bane's frontman Chad Fischer, from the 2009 animated film "". Both versions feature substantially rewritten lyrics; Simone's version savagely exhumes her troubled relationship with her late father, whereas Fischer's version explores the unrequited desire of an acorn for the prehistoric squirrel who once chased it.