It's My Life (Talk Talk song)

Infobox Single
Name = It's My Life


Artist = Talk Talk
from Album = It's My Life
B-side = "Does Caroline Know?"
Released = January 1984
1990
Format = 7" vinyl
12" vinyl
Recorded = 1983
Genre = Synthpop
New wave
Length = 3:53
Label = EMI
Parlophone
Writer = Mark Hollis
Tim Friese-Greene
Producer = Tim Friese-Greene
Certification =
Last single = "Another Word" (1984)
This single = "It's My Life" (1984)
Next single = "Such a Shame" (1984)
Misc =Extra chronology 2
Last single = "I Believe in You"
(1988)
This single = "It's My Life"
(1990)
Next single = "Life's What You Make It"
(1991)Extra album cover
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Background = khaki


Lower caption = 1990 cover

"It's My Life" is a synthpop song written by Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene for Talk Talk's second album "It's My Life" (1984). The song was re-released twice : first in 1985, then in 1990. In 2003, it was successfully covered by No Doubt.

Talk Talk version

Background and writing

The song was the first collaboration between Hollis and Friese-Greene. [Irvin, Jim. "Paradise Lost". "Mojo": 50–6. February 2006.] "It's My Life" was released as the album's lead single in January 1984 (see 1984 in music), which started their drift from straightforward Synthpop sound into more experimental albums. Both the song and the album are synthpop, but their instrumentation is richer than in the debut album. The single went #46 in UK charts - a relative disappointment - but reached #31 in the U.S. and Netherlands charts, #30 in Canada, #33 in Germany, #25 in France and #7 in Italy (where Talk Talk had a huge success).

In 1990, "It's My Life" was reissued to promote the compilation "Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk". This time, the song was a major hit in the UK Top 40, charting at #13.

The song is also featured on the Rockstar Games video game for PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 "" on the 'Flash FM' radio station. No Doubt released a cover version of "It's My Life" for its 2003 compilation album "The Singles 1992-2003".

Music video

There are two versions of the video for "It's My Life." The first, envisioned by director Tim Pope as a statement against the banality of lip-synching, consists almost entirely of footage from nature documentaries, interspersed with shots of Talk Talk lead singer Mark Hollis standing in the midst of the London Zoo, with his mouth pointedly shut tight and often obscured by hand-drawn animated lines. The second version, recorded at the behest of EMI, consisted of the entirety of the original video projected on a green screen behind Hollis and his two bandmates as they lip-synched and mimed the song, deliberately poorly and with comic exaggerated gestures. Hollis was "pissed off" in that shoot.

Track listings

References