(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Gilbert O'Sullivan - "Alone Again (Naturally)"
Hit Number 1: July 29, 1972
Stay at Number 1: 6 Weeks
This was something that always made me question how people were in the '70s. According to Casey Kasem, the 5th most popular song of the decade was a depressing song about contemplating suicide and both of your parents dying. This song was #1 for 6 weeks too, and considering it knocked Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" out of the #1 spot, it makes me wonder what the hell happened to where everyone went from calling their friends for help to believing all hope was lost. Okay, I know this was all mere coincidence, but it's still funny to me how there are some scenarios of songs knocking off certain songs. (One of these cases was Peter & Gordon's "A World Without Love" knocking the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" out of the #1 spot in 1964. Those songs could not be further apart.)
Even though Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" is one of the most depressing songs to ever top the Hot 100, there is something brilliant about the backstory. The song starts out as the narrator contemplating jumping off a tower after his bride ditches him at a wedding. He then goes on to talk about how happy he once was in his life, and how he's had to deal with the passing of his parents. The narrator keeps finding himself alone, again and naturally. This wasn't the song of a guy who actually went through these things - this was someone who just decided to write a song one day, and this is what he came up with. O'Sullivan was only 21 years old when he wrote "Alone Again". He wasn't even thinking about marriage at that point, barely knew his father who died when O'Sullivan was 11, and his mother was still alive when he wrote the song. It's not based on a true story, it's just a depressingly, but brilliantly written song. O'Sullivan has gotten praise from artists such as Neil Diamond and Neil Sedaka for how well "Alone Again" was written. Sedaka even said he wished he had written it instead.
Lyrics can only take you so far, though. Musically, there isn't anything that impressive about "Alone Again". There's shallow piano riffs, a dinky guitar solo and O'Sullivan's voice, which is okay, but just like everything else isn't too impressive. It's frankly a pretty generic piece of music. I'm not sure this was worthy of being #1 for 6 weeks. Again, was everyone doing okay in the summer of 1972? Did they just run out of friends to lean on?
Even though the song is extremely depressing, and generic, it doesn't bug me too much. I like to listen to an app called AccuRadio, where I can listen to all sorts of genres of music. There's a '70s station I sometimes like to listen to, and "Alone Again" is a regular occurrence on that station. I don't mind that. It's a pleasant song to have play in the background if you're not paying attention to the lyrics. And you know, if you are paying attention to the lyrics, they're pretty sad, but still it's something to appreciate. I can't stress enough how much I respect how well-written the song is. I just wish O'Sullivan could have used his songwriting talent to make something a little more cheerful than this. (I am aware of O'Sullivan's song "Get Down", which is cheery but a pretty stupid song that was not well-written. It made it up to #7, and even though it's stupid, it's still a 7)
Anyway, we won't hear from O'Sullivan again in this series, but I'm sure he got nice royalties from his song. I'll probably never understand why "Alone Again" hit the way it did, but it could have been worse. He could have written a damn teen tragedy song or something. Screw those songs forever.
GRADE: 6/10
JUST MISSED:
The Hollies' CCR ripoff, but country rock classic "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" peaked at #2 behind "Alone Again (Naturally)". It's an 8.
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