Friday, August 06, 2010

American Top 40 Flashback - Gilbert O'Sullivan

"Alone Again (Naturally)" dominated the airwaves during the summer of 1972. I always think of it as my family's first "Los Angeles song," because it was that summer that we took our first L.A. vacation, hitting all of the usual tourist spots - Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, the Japanese Deer Garden, etc.

The first few times you heard this song, what caught you up was the bouncy rhythm. It was only after a while that you realized, "man, this one f*cking depressing song." Of course, I didn't use words like that back then, but still. There are no two ways about it - this is definitely one f*cking depressing song.

But to this day, I think it is a great song. Gilbert may have been a bit of a flash in the pan (if I recall correctly, he had the same manager as Tom Jones - or was it Engelbert Humperdinck?), but the kid did have talent, and he had a couple of other hits after this one. But nothing ever matched what he achieved here.

"Alone Again (Naturally)," the #1 song this week in 1972.

2 comments:

le0pard13 said...

Great flashback on this, Jeff. Yep, it's a great song for the reasons you state in the post. But, it's a damn depressing song. Thanks for this.

#167 Dad said...

Yeah, it does bring back memories. I was an eighth grader at an L.A. Catholic school...