Alone Again (Naturally) is a melancholic soft rock and pop ballad by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. Recorded in 1971 and released as a UK single on 18 February 1972 and in the US in May 1972, it later appeared on reissues of the 1972 album Back to Front rather than the original track list.
The song features three verses and a bridge with no chorus, and each verse ends with the line “Alone again, naturally.” It is in F sharp major with a bridge in A major and uses jazz-like chords such as half-diminished and flat ninths. Lyrically it explores loneliness, despair, and questions about God, touching on the death of the narrator’s parents, though O’Sullivan says it is not autobiographical.
In the United States the single spent six non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972 and sold over two million copies; it also reached number three in the UK. The track became notable in a 1991 copyright case that helped establish that unauthorized sampling can be infringement. It has been covered by artists such as Andy Williams, Nina Simone, and Diana Krall with Michael Bublé.
