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| “We’re All Alone” | |
|---|---|
| Song by Boz Scaggs | |
| from the album Silk Degrees | |
| A-side | “Lido Shuffle“ |
| Released | 1976 |
| Length | 4:12 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Songwriter(s) | Boz Scaggs |
| Producer(s) | Joe Wissert |
“We’re All Alone” is a song written by Boz Scaggs, who introduced it on his 1976 album Silk Degrees. It was included as the B-side of two of the four single releases from that LP, including “Lido Shuffle.” “We’re All Alone” was a 1977 top-ten hit for Rita Coolidge in the US and the UK.
Early versions
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 which reached #78 U.S. in August 1976 (#74 Cash Box, #27 Adult Contemporary; Canada #73 Pop, #36 AC), and in the spring of 1977 a version by Bruce Murray was an airplay item in Canada.
The Walker Brothers – one of Scaggs’ formative influences – cut “We’re All Alone” for their Lines album; the track had an October 1976 single release in the UK where the Frankie Valli version had a single release that July; the Walker Brothers’ version did reach #22 in the Netherlands in August 1977 a month before the Rita Coolidge version reached the Dutch charts.
In March 1977 the version by the Three Degrees – recorded for the album Standing Up For Love – was a UK single release meaning that the Rita Coolidge version of “We’re All Alone” which reached UK #7 that summer was the fourth UK single release to feature the song as an A-side.
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 #11 and #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 #54 in the autumn of 1977, the only evident instance of the Scaggs original charting.
In March 1977 C&W singer LaCosta had a single release of “We’re All Alone” in both the US – where it charted at #75 C&W – and also the UK where the track was the B-side of a remake of “I Second That Emotion“.
In a 1976 interview with Creem magazine, Scaggs stated that Michael Jackson had cut versions of “We’re All Alone” and “What Can I Say” — both from Silk Degrees — but if so, these tracks have never been released.
Rita Coolidge version
Single by Rita Coolidgefrom the album Anytime…AnywhereB-side“Southern Lady”ReleasedJune 1977Format7″ singleLength3:38LabelA&MSongwriter(s)Boz ScaggsProducer(s)David AnderleRita Coolidge singles chronology
| “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher“ (1977) |
“We’re All Alone” (1977) |
“The Way You Do the Things You Do“ (1977) |
The Rita Coolidge version of “We’re All Alone” was featured on the album Anytime…Anywhere released in March 1977.
Coolidge would recall: “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 #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 #6 in Ireland. In September Coolidge’s version of “We’re All Alone” entered the Dutch charts where it would peak at #15 (in August the Walker Brothers’ version had reached #22 on the Dutch charts).
The second single from Anytime…Anywhere in the US, “We’re All Alone” there ascended to #7 that September: the track also received enough airplay in the C&Wmarket to reach #68 on the C&W chart.
“We’re All Alone” was the first of Coolidge’s two Adult Contemporary #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 #32 peak – the original Boz Scaggs version had been a minor Australian hit in the autumn of 1977 reaching #54 in a tandem charting with its flip “Lowdown“.
In New Zealand, Coolidge’s “We’re All Alone” charted with a #34 peak in February 1978.
Reportedly the concurrent availability of both the Boz Scaggs original and the Coolidge version of “We’re All Alone” at radio stations (and their versions having the same key and tempo) moved some disc jockeys to splice together the two tracks into one unofficial duet (a trend that had begun two years prior with the two concurrent versions of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers“).
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.”
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| “We’re All Alone” | |
|---|---|
| Single by Frankie Valli | |
| B-side | “You to Me Are Everything” |
| Released | August 1976 |
| Length | 3:59 |
| Label | Private Stock |
| Songwriter(s) | Boz Scaggs |
| Producer(s) | Bob Gaudio |
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 #78 U.S. in August 1976 (#74 Cash Box, #27 Adult Contemporary; Canada #73 Pop, #36 AC).
The Walker Brothers – one of Scaggs’ formative influences – cut “We’re All Alone” for their Lines album; the track had an October 1976 single release in the UK where the Frankie Valli version had a single release that July; the Walker Brothers’ version did reach #22 in the Netherlands in August 1977 a month before the Rita Coolidgeversion reached the Dutch charts.
In March 1977, the version by the Three Degrees – recorded for the album Standing Up For Love – was a UK single release meaning that the Rita Coolidge version of “We’re All Alone” which reached UK #7 that summer was the fourth UK single release to feature the song as an A-side.
That same month, C&W singer LaCosta had a single release of “We’re All Alone” in both the US – where it charted at #75 C&W – and also the UK where the track was the B-side of a remake of “I Second That Emotion“. Also, in the spring of 1977 a version by Bruce Murray was an airplay item in Canada.
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