Songoftheday 4/16/22 - Do you think you're better off alone? Talk to me...
"Better Off Alone" - Alice Deejay
from the album Who Needs Guitars Anyway? (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song comes from Alice Deejay, who wasn't really a woman DJ named Alice, but rather a Dutch Eurodance act put together by producers Wessel van Diepen and Dennis van den Driesschen (who were also involved in the creation of the name-misleading Vengaboys), along with Jurgen Rijkers, Sebastiaan Molijn, and Eelke Kalberg. Lead singer Judith Pronk was the "face" of the group, and what most people associated with the "Alice Deejay" name. With Moljin and Kalberg taking an earlier instrumental they wrote and adding lyrics about a breakup on top, the debut single of the act was completed. I mean a trace of lyrics. You could almost consider it still an "instrumental-based" track, for the first minute plus is just Judith singing "Do you think you're better off alone", with the only other lyrics being the repeated "talk to me". It doesn't matter, the beat if mesmerizing, and it gave America its first big taste of the trance style of dance music that had been beginning to dominate the club scene in Europe at the turn of the millennium...
"Better Off Alone" became Alice Deejay's first and only hit on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart in America, reaching the top-40 in June of 2000. The song rose to #14 on the Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, as well as #14 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. The remixes of the track helped it climb to #3 on the Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single was a huge success, making the top ten in the UK (#2), Ireland (#3), Norway (#3), Australia (#4), Sweden (#5), France (#6), the Netherlands (#8), and Hungary (#10). It also got into the top-40 in Denmark (#11), New Zealand (#11), Belgium (#14F/#30W), Finland (#16), Italy (#17), Canada (#19), Iceland (#25), Switzerland (#28), and Germany (#32). The groups first and only album, Who Needs Guitars Anyway?, was released in March of that year, and rose to #76 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending a half year (26 weeks) on the list, a decent number for a dance album with one big hit on it.
The group's second single would be "Back In My Life", also written by Moljin and Kalberg, basic lyrics over a killer trance beat again proved to be a winner internationally, topping the Norwegian singles chart, and making the top ten in Denmark (#2), the UK (#4), Sweden (#4), the Netherlands (#5), Hungary (#5), Ireland (#5), Romania (#7), and Finland (#10). However, in the States the track missed the pop and radio charts altogether, though it did place at #27 on the Dance Club Play list. A third release, "Will I Ever", scored a third top ten hit in the UK (#7), Ireland (#8), Sweden (#10), and the Netherlands (#10). That was followed by "The Lonely One", which made the top-40 in the UK (#16), Ireland, Sweden, and their homeland of Holland. Lastly, "Celebrate Our Love" made a fifth top-40 hit in the UK (#17), the Netherlands (#25), and Sweden (#33).
Despite the big international success, it seems the producers felt the merger of party music and forlornly-delivered vocals were good enough for one album, and went their separate ways. They popped up again in 2014 with a new singer, which traipsed the "oldies dance" touring circuit. But last year, they reunited with Pronk for shows, helped greatly with the resurrection of "Better Off Alone" on the TikTok app.
(7/10)
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There was a separate video edit done for the original European release, which just has the guy in the desert dying thing, without Pronk dancing and singing, just a girl (not sure if the same) on a couch...
This is the extended club mix that helped the song rise to #3 on the dance chart in America...
In 2011, David Guetta used the "Better Off Alone" backing track for his single "Play Hard" with Akon and Ne-Yo, which went to #6 in the UK and #64 in the US, as well as #2 on the Billboard Dance Club Play tally...
and lastly, a reunited Alice Deejay with Pronk doing "Back In My Life" and "Better Off Alone" at a 90's retro show...
Up tomorrow: these toned-down rockers hit the main street.
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