Alone Again (Naturally)

With sublime expression, Dame Shirley covers Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 1972 hit.

Click here to enjoy Alone Again (Naturally)

Thanks to Mikey Mike for the link, and Jose for the MySpace add.

Released on the 1976 album Love, Life And Feelings. A live recording was released on the album Live In Japan 1977. Shirley Bassey performed this song at more live concerts, and in one of her 1976 TV shows she performed it together with Gilbert O’Sullivan himself, whom she had invited as guest.

The song is available on CD on the collection Let Me Sing And I’m Happy and the 3 CD box set Diamonds Are Forever.

 

Gilbert’s original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8 

Official web site:

http://www.gilbertosullivan.net/

Raymond Edward O’Sullivan (born 1946, Waterford) known professionally as Gilbert O’Sullivan, is an Irish singer-songwriter. 

Early in his life, his family moved to England. He began to develop an interest in music and art. At Swindon Art College in 1963, he met Rick Davies who would later become a member of the progressive rock band Supertramp.

O’Sullivan signed a five-year contract with CBS Records in 1967, who redesignated him Gilbert O’Sullivan, a pun on the names of the Savoy Opera writing team of Gilbert and Sullivan.

In 1972, his international star raised after his self-penned ballad, Alone Again (Naturally), a No. 3 hit in Britain, became a chart-topper in the U.S., spending six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and selling nearly two million copies.

O’Sullivan continues to record and perform to the present day, and enjoys some success in Japan. His latest album (A Scruff At Heart) was released in 2007.

Lyrics

In a little while from now
If I’m not feeling any less sour
I promise myself
To treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top
Will throw myself right off
In an effort to
Make it clear to whoever
What it’s like when you’re shattered
Left standing in the lurch
At a church
Where people saying
“My God it’s tough
She’s stood him up
No point in us remaining
We might as well go home”
As I did on my own
Alone again
Naturally

To think that only yesterday
I was cheerful, bright and gay
Looking forward to
Who wouldn’t do
The role I was about to play
As if to knock my down
Reality came around
And without so much
As a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt
Talk about
God in his mercy
Who if he really does exist
Why did he desert me?
In my hour of need
I truly am indeed Alone again
Naturally

It seems to me that there are more hearts
Broken in the world
That can’t be mended
Left unattended
What do we do?
What do we do?

Now looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried
When my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears
And at sixty-five years old
My mother
God rest her soul
Couldn’t understand
Why The only man
She had ever loved
Had been taken
Leaving her to start
With a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
When she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again
Naturally
Alone again
Naturally (Transcribed by Roman)