We're All Alone

"We're All Alone" is a song written by Boz Scaggs, which became a hit for Frankie Valli in 1976. The next year it was a top-ten hit for Rita Coolidge in the US and the UK. Scaggs introduced it on his 1976 album ''Silk Degrees'', and included it as the B-side of two of the four single releases from that LP, including "Lido Shuffle".

Boz Scaggs version

Scaggs' own version of "We're All Alone" was the standard B-side of his international single release "Lido Shuffle" including its release in the US and UK where "Lido Shuffle" respectively charted at number 11 and number 13. However, in Australia, Scaggs' "We're All Alone" was issued with " Lowdown" as the flip to become a double A-side chart entry reaching number 54 in the autumn of 1977, the only evident instance of the Scaggs original charting.

Personnel
* Boz Scaggs – guitar, lead vocals
* Fred Tackett – guitar
* Louis Shelton – guitar, acoustic guitar
* David Hungate – bass
* Jeff Porcaro – drums
* David Paich – arrangements, piano
* Sid Sharp – string conductor and concertmaster
* Horns – Tony Terran, Vincent DeRosa, Jim Horn, Paul Hubinon, Dick Hyde, Plas Johnson, Tom Scott, Bud Shank

Frankie Valli version

A heartfelt ballad which closed ''Silk Degrees'', "We're All Alone" garnered attention soon after the album's March 1976 release. Frankie Valli had a single version from his ''Valli'' LP which reached number 78 U.S. in August 1976 (number 74 ''Cash Box'', number 27 Adult Contemporary; Canada number 73 Pop, number 36 AC).

The Walker Brothers version

The Walker Brothers – one of Scaggs' formative influences – cut "We're All Alone" for their ''Lines'' album; the track had an October 1976 album release in the UK where the Frankie Valli version had a single release that July; the Walker Brothers' version did reach number 22 in the Netherlands in August 1977 a month before the Rita Coolidge version reached the Dutch charts. The B-side to the Walker Brothers version is a cover of Randy Newman's 1970 single "Have You Seen My Baby?" from his album 12 Songs.

The Three Degrees version

In March 1977, the version by the Three Degrees – recorded for the album Standing Up for Love – was a UK single release, the second and final single from the album, meaning that the Rita Coolidge version of "We're All Alone" which reached UK number 6 that summer was the fourth UK single release to feature the song as an A-side.

Personnel

*Sheila Ferguson - vocals
*Valerie Holiday - vocals
*Helen Scott - vocals

LaCosta version

In March 1977, during the same time of single release of the Three Degrees version in the UK, C&W singer LaCosta Tucker, the older singer of American country singer Tanya Tucker, had a non-album single release of "We're All Alone" in the US (number 75 C&W) and the UK where the track was the B-side of a remake of " I Second That Emotion".

Rita Coolidge version

The Rita Coolidge version of "We're All Alone" was featured on the album '' Anytime...Anywhere'' released in March 1977. Her version had the greatest sales success.

Coolidge was already familiar with Scaggs; she sang backing vocals, and she arranged and directed the other backing singers on his albums '' Moments'' and '' Boz Scaggs & Band'', both from 1971, on Columbia Records.

Coolidge recalled: "When I was with A&M Records, it was like a family. I would visit Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, and it was a very open, communicative group of people. One day I was in Jerry Moss' office and he said that the Boz Scaggs album ''Silk Degrees'' was in a million homes and there was a song on it that was perfect for a woman to sing. He said, 'It's called "We're All Alone" and as he's not doing it as a single, I think you ought to record it.'"

The original lyrics of "We're All Alone" include lines "Close your eyes ''ami''" and "Throw it to the wind my love". Coolidge sings these lines as "Close your eyes and dream" and "Owe it to the wind my love".

Although the first single off the US release of ''Anytime...Anywhere'' was " (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher", "We're All Alone" was the first single taken off the album in the UK where it reached number 6 in August 1977 when "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" was moving up the US Top 10; that same month "We're All Alone" reached number 6 in Ireland. In September Coolidge's version of "We're All Alone" entered the Dutch charts where it would peak at number 15 (in August the Walker Brothers' version had reached number 22 on the Dutch charts).

The second single from ''Anytime...Anywhere'' in the US, "We're All Alone" there ascended to number 7 that September: the track also received enough airplay in the C&W market to reach number 68 on the C&W chart.

"We're All Alone" was the first of Coolidge's two Adult Contemporary number 1 hits – the second would be " All Time High" – and after "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" was her second single to be certified Gold for US sales of 1,000,000.

In December 1977, "We're All Alone" entered the charts in Australia to remain for 16 weeks with a number 32 peak – the original Boz Scaggs version had been a minor Australian hit in the autumn of 1977 reaching number 54 in a tandem charting with its flip " Lowdown".

In New Zealand, Coolidge's "We're All Alone" charted with a number 34 peak in February 1978.

Coolidge remade "We're All Alone" for her 2005 jazz release ''And So Is Love'': Elysa Gardner of ''USA Today'' opined that Coolidge "brings a new wistfulness and knowing to her own hit of yore...proving that good interpretive singers, like fine wine, improve with age."

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

See also

* List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1977 (U.S.)

References

External links

Song Lyrics
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1976 songs
1976 singles
1977 singles
Boz Scaggs songs
Frankie Valli songs
The Walker Brothers songs
Rita Coolidge songs
Songs written by Boz Scaggs
Columbia Records singles
A&M Records singles
Private Stock Records singles