This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us
| "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" | ||||||||
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| Single by Sparks | ||||||||
| from the album Kimono My House | ||||||||
| B-side | "Barbecutie" | |||||||
| Released | 1974 | |||||||
| Format | 7", 45rpm | |||||||
| Recorded | 1974 | |||||||
| Genre | Rock, Glam rock, Chamber pop | |||||||
| Length | 3:06 min | |||||||
| Label | Island Records | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Ron Mael | |||||||
| Producer | Muff Winwood | |||||||
| Sparks singles chronology | ||||||||
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"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" is a song written by Ron Mael of the American pop group Sparks. It is the opening track on their 1974 album Kimono My House, and was the lead single from the album, reaching number two in the UK singles chart.
The original idea for the song was that after each verse Russell would sing a movie dialogue cliché, one of which was "This town ain't big enough for the both of us". They dropped the idea of having different phrases and instead used only the one in the title.
An acoustic version of the song was recorded in 1985 for the B-side of the Change single.
In 1997, Sparks recorded two new versions of the song. The first was an orchestral reworking produced by Tony Visconti which reinstated a verse Muff Winwood had cut from the original. The other was for their album Plagiarism as a collaboration with Faith No More, which was released as a single and reached number forty in the British singles chart.
Winwood added the distinctive Western movie style gunshots in the studio. It has been claimed that Winwood bet with his friend Elton John that the song would become a top five hit in the UK charts. Elton John bet that it would not; he lost.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- 1974 original release.
- "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us – 3:06
- "Barbecutie – 3:10
[edit] Personnel
- Russell Mael, vocals
- Ron Mael, keyboards
- Martin Gordon, bass
- Adrian Fisher, guitar
- Norman "Dinky" Diamond, drums
[edit] Chart positions
Original release (1974)
| Chart | Peak position |
Certifications (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|
| Dutch Top 40[2] | 4 | |
| German Media Control Singles Chart[3] | 12 | |
| Swiss Singles Chart[4] | 7 | |
| U.K. Singles Chart[5] | 2 | BPI: Silver[6] |
Sparks Vs. Faith No More (1997)
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.K. Singles Chart[5] | 40 |
[edit] Musical style
The vocal sound on the single has been criticised as being "stylised". This may be because the song was written without any regard for the vocal style of Russell Mael. Songwriter Ron Mael has explained:
"This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us” was written in A, and by God it'll be sung in A. I just feel that if you're coming up with most of the music, then you have an idea where it's going to go. And no singer is gonna get in my way.
Russell Mael has claimed in reply:
"When he wrote “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us”, Ron could only play it in that key. It was so much work to transpose the song and one of us had to budge, so I made the adjustment to fit in. My voice ain't a "rock" voice. It's not soulful, in the traditional rock way; It's not about "guts". It's untrained, unschooled, I never questioned why I was singing high. It just happened, dictated by the songs. Ron has always written Sparks' lyrics and never transposed them into a rock key for me to sing. He always packed each line with words and I had to sing them as they were.[7]
[edit] Cover versions
The song has been covered by Siouxsie and the Banshees on their 1987 album Through the Looking Glass, by Heavens Gate on their 1996 album Planet E, and by Theory in Practice on their 2002 album Colonizing the Sun. British Whale (recording alias of The Darkness singer/songwriter Justin Hawkins) released a version as his debut single in August 2005, which reached number 6 in the UK charts.
The track "Arabian Shamuru" on the 1991 Bon Voyage album by Japanese band Mahalik Halili uses almost exactly the same melody as "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us".
In live concerts, the electro/dance group Justice have performed the track, and Arizona's The Format also cover it frequently, including it on their 2006 EP And Now I Hope You're Alright - Live in California. Portuguese band Humanos in their concerts performed a live version, mashing it with O Corpo É Que Paga.[8] by Portuguese 1980's icon António Variações, which is available on their live DVD[9]
Sparks' 1997 album Plagiarism included two collaborations with Faith No More - "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" and "Something for the Girl with Everything". Faith No More then performed the song live during their 1997-1998 and reunion tours.
[edit] Cultural references
The song appears in a dream sequence in an episode of the British sitcom Green Wing. It is performed by two of the characters, Dr. "Mac" Macartney and Dr. Alan Statham, pretending to be Russell Mael and Ron Mael respectively.
The original Sparks version of the song is heard in the 2010 movie Kick-Ass.
[edit] References
- ^ Sparks Kimono My House at graphikdesigns.free.fr
- ^ "dutchcharts.nl - Discography Sparks". © 2006-2010 Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.. http://dutchcharts.nl/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Sparks. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ^ "Charts Surfer - UK, German and French charts". charts-surfer.de. http://www.charts-surfer.de. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
- ^ "chitparade.ch - Discography Sparks". © 2006-2010 Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.. http://hitparade.ch/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Sparks. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ^ a b "Chart Stats - Sparks". chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=2474. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
- ^ "British certificates: searchable database". bpi.co.uk. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
- ^ The Word, No. 36, February 2006.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
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