Gilbert O'Sullivan -- Alone Again (Naturally)

 

For a Reminiscings of Youth article, this one is a bit more loaded than usual although I had been aware of some of the stuff going on in Japan regarding this ballad.

As with so many of the old songs, I used to hear Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" all the time on the radio but never realized the significance of the lyrics until many, many years later. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that the song hadn't been about a guy moping about not having that love in his life, but someone who really needed help since he was about on the verge of suicide, such was the depths of his loneliness. O'Sullivan's music was just so comforting and whimsical that I couldn't really tell.

Released as a single in the UK in February and then in the United States in May 1972, "Alone Again (Naturally)" was an international hit. On America's Billboard chart, it was at No. 1 for six non-consecutive weeks and ended up as the No. 2 single of the year there while in Canada, it also hit the top of the charts but was "only" No. 6 for 1972.

"Alone Again" was a hit that kept on giving in Japan. For one thing, when it was also released in 1972 there, it was No. 1 for 5 straight weeks on Oricon's Western music chart. But as time passed, the song was used for many projects. For one thing, O'Sullivan's arguably most famous song was used as the theme tune for Episode 24 in the famous "Maison Ikkoku"（めぞん一刻）anime series back in 1986. My first impression was that "Alone Again" was being utilized to signify some major incident within the show but instead, I found out via the Maison Ikkoku Wiki that O'Sullivan had been signed to Kitty Records which was associated with Kitty Films which was behind the anime so that it would be a good way to promote him. However, fans didn't go for the out-of-left-field inclusion and it was back to Yuki Saito's（斉藤由貴）much happier "Kanashimi yo Konnichiwa"（悲しみよこんにちは）from Episode 25 (although "Alone Again" would return as an insert song in Episode 27 and then as the theme for the live-action version of the series in 1986). Watching this one-off opening credit sequence above did leave quite an impression, though, and apparently on a lot of YouTube commenters.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, "Alone Again" attracted attention from at least a couple of products which used it for their commercials, one being JT's brand of cigarettes. A couple of network dramas also used it as their theme song into the 21st century, and I think it was for one of them that I ended up picking up a re-release of the O'Sullivan song at one of the major Tokyo CD shops.

Though I always saw kayo wunderkind Shinji Harada（原田真二）as the Japanese version of Gilbert O'Sullivan, I don't think that he ever did a cover of "Alone Again...Naturally". However, vocally speaking, singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）is quite similar to O'Sullivan, so I did go naruhodo when I heard his rendition of the ballad. The J-Wiki article for it mentions that he's sung "Alone Again...Naturally" in concert but I'm not sure whether the crooner ever released an official version.

Let's go with the American release date of the song when showing what was being released at that time in Japan. I found two famous hits which got released in May 1972.

Mari Amachi -- Hitori Janaino (ひとりじゃないの）

Shiro Miya & The Pinkara Trio -- Onna no Michi (女のみち）