Better Off Alone (Alice Deejay song)

"Better Off Alone"
Single by Alice Deejay
from the album Who Needs Guitars Anyway?
Released	July 19, 1998
Format	CD 12"[1]
Recorded	1997[2]
Genre	Vocal trance Eurodance techno-pop
Length	3:34
Label	Universal Republic Positiva
Writer(s)	Sebastian Molijn Eelke Kalberg[3]
Producer(s)	DJ Jurgen
Alice Deejay singles chronology
"Better Off Alone" (1998) "Back in My Life" (1999)
DJ Jurgen cover The original cover for "Better Off Alone". Music sample "Better Off Alone" 21 second excerpt where the song's primary line is featured.

"Better Off Alone" is a song by Dutch trance music group Alice Deejay. It was released on July 19, 1998 as the lead single from their debut album Who Needs Guitars Anyway?. The song had a key role in the creation of a more radio-friendly trance sound and has since been considered a electronic/trance music classic.

Production and composition

"Better Off Alone" was initially an instrumental track composed in 1997 by Jürgen "DJ Jurgen" Rijkers, Sebastiaan "Pronti" Moljin, and Eelke "Kalmani" Kahlberg.^[3][2] Sebastiaan Molijn stated he came up with the lyric "Do you think you're better off alone?" after his romantic partner had left him. Molijn stated that "I started humming the vocal melody while the track was playing and we decided to add vocals. It made the emotion of the song as real as it gets. One simple line that said it all."^[3] Judith Pronk served as singer for the composition.^[4]

"Better Off Alone" is written in the key of G sharp minor with a fast tempo of 137 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of E–D♯m–G♯m–F♯, and the vocals span from B₃ to G♯₄.^[5]

With the turn of the century, "Better Off Alone" has been described as a turning point in the development of a more commercialized trance sound – a sound shared by songs such as "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65 that had appeared around the time.^[6] Co-founder of Dash Berlin Jeffrey Sutorious stated, "It became such a huge chart hit around the world that many people categorised [sic] it as Euro Dance, when in fact it started out as vocal trance". Eelke Kalberg and Sebastiaan Molijn are Dash Berlin's other co-founders.^[2] Entertainment Weekly described the song as "techno-pop" while Spin described it as a "trance-fueled Eurodance".^[4][7]

Critical reception

Since its debut, the song has been included on numerous lists of acclaim. Vibe included the song at number 17 in their list of "30 Dance Tracks From The ’90s That Changed The Game", considering it "a timeless track".^[8] Complex magazine included the song on their "10 Essential Eurodance Classics" list stating the song, "perfectly embodies the 1990s Eurodance/euro trance sound that took over clubs, and today we're hearing the big room house scene build upon what was started here." Complex also stated that Sebastiaan Moljin and Eelke Kahlberg's production of trance music project Dash Berlin, is directly reflective of the song's influence on the modern day electronic music scene.^[9] Dash Berlin honorarily included the song in their top 5 greatest trance classics.^[2] Despite much acclaim in present tense, the song was initially received with passiveness by some critics. Entertainment Weekly gave the song a B rating, describing the song as having "catchy, throwaway results" with "barely there lyrics".^[7]

Music videos

"Better Off Alone" is notable for having two versions of its music video. The original music video was released in 1999, directed by Olaf van Gerwen through the studio Blood Simple – who at the time directed videos for Sebastian Molijn and Eelke Kalberg's other music project the Vengaboys.^[10][11] In the first version of the video, a man is travelling in a Jeep through the desert. His car stalls and he is forced to walk on foot. In parallel, a woman is sitting on a couch in a living room singing the lyrics to the song. It ends with the man who gets tired of walking through the desert, only to settle down and get covered in sand. The second version was directed by "Cousin Mike" from the 1711 Production Group. The second video was shot in Miami for Republic and Universal.^[12] The second version is interspersed with desert scenes from the original, but with added scenes where Judith Pronk, Mila Levesque and Angelique Versnel are dancing in a room with oriental decor. Sometimes just Pronk alone, wearing a blue dress with a veil.

Track listing

iTunes single^[13] (Violent Music BV)

1. "Better Off Alone" (Radio Edit) – (3:36)
2. "Better Off Alone" (Vocal Club Mix) – (6:53)
3. "Better Off Alone" (Signum Remix) – (7:46)
4. "Better Off Alone" (DJ Jam X & De Leon Dumonde RMX) – (6:44)
5. "Better Off Alone" (Pronti & Kalmani Vocal RMX) – (7:04)
6. "Better Off Alone" (Pronti & Kalmani Club Dub) – (6:46)
7. "Better Off Alone" (Mark Van Dale with Enrico RMX) – (9:27)
8. "Better Off Alone" (Instrumental Mix) – (6:36)

Release and chart performance

The single was originally credited only to DJ Jurgen to give the single credibility, however later on it got re-released as "DJ Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay" and "Alice Deejay Featuring DJ Jurgen" in some countries. The single later came to be of just Alice Deejay.^[14][15] Upon release there were only 500 vinyls pressed.^[2] However, the track was released to dance clubs and became an international hit in clubs reaching number 2 on the Billboard club charts and a top ten club chart worldwide. The song then became a hit reaching number 2 in Canada, number 25 in the U.S. and number 2 in the UK. It went on to sell over 600,000 copies in the UK and become one of the country's best-selling singles of 1999, despite the radio edit not being on the commercial CD release.^[16] The song was in the top 100 best-selling singles in Australia for 2000 as compiled by the Australian Recording Industry Association.^[17]

Cover versions and samples

In 2007, New Jersey rock group Paulson released a rock cover of the song on their Calling on You EP.^[36]

In 2008, the main melody of the song was sampled by Johnny Juliano in "Say Yeah" by Wiz Khalifa. The producer added "808s and claps" to the existing melody.^[37]

The main melody of the song was sampled in David Guetta's 2013 song "Play Hard" featuring Ne-Yo and Akon which was later included in the rebooting of the album Nothing But the Beat. Some sources have described this "heavy" sampling as an example of the "gray area in the world of music plagiarism". Some sources have stated that this poses the question of "How much sampling is too much sampling?".^[38] In contrast, other sources have stated that David Guetta had asked for permission to use the hook of the song.^[39]

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics