This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us

"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" is a song by American pop band Sparks. Written by Ron Mael, it is the opening track on their third studio album Kimono My House (1974), and was the lead single from the album. Although it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" achieved major success in Europe, peaking within the top ten of the charts in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the latter country, the song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, where it remained for two consecutive weeks.^[4] The song has become the highest-charting for Sparks on the UK Singles Chart, held off from the top spot by The Rubettes' bubblegum pop song "Sugar Baby Love".

"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us"
Single by Sparks
from the album Kimono My House and Plagiarism (1997 re-recording with Faith No More)
B-side	"Barbecutie"
Released	April 1974
Recorded	1974
Genre	Glam rock[1] progressive pop[2] synth-pop[3]
Length	3:06
Label	Island
Songwriter(s)	Ron Mael
Producer(s)	Muff Winwood
Sparks singles chronology
"Girl from Germany" (1972) "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" (1974) "Amateur Hour" (1974)
Faith No More singles chronology
"Stripsearch" (1997) "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" (1998) "I Started a Joke" (1998)
Music video
"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" on YouTube

Background

The original idea for the song was that after each verse Russell Mael would sing a movie dialogue cliché, one of which was "This town ain't big enough for both of us", used in the 1932 film The Western Code. They dropped the idea of having different phrases and instead used only the one in the title. The original working title of the song was "Too Hot to Handle".^{[citation needed]}

The record's producer Muff Winwood used distinctive Western movie-style gunshots on the recording after Ron and Russell "went through a whole BBC library and found the perfect gunshot for that song."^[5]

The Maels frequently told the story that Winwood had bet his friend Elton John that the song would become a top-five hit on the UK Singles Chart and that John, saying it would not, lost the bet.^[6] However, in his Sparks biography Talent Is an Asset, Daryl Easlea reports that this was a "great tale" propagated by the Mael brothers but contradicted by Winwood himself. Winwood said that he was unsure of how commercial the track would be, so he played it to John, who told him, "Listen, I'll bet you a hundred quid that that makes the Top 3". Winwood's wife agreed, and his doubts were allayed.^[6]

Musical style

The song was written without any regard for the vocal style of Russell Mael. Songwriter Ron Mael has explained:

"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" was written in A, and by God it'll be sung in A. I just feel that if you're coming up with most of the music, then you have an idea where it's going to go. And no singer is gonna get in my way.

Russell Mael has claimed in reply:

When he wrote "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us", Ron could only play it in that key. It was so much work to transpose the song and one of us had to budge, so I made the adjustment to fit in. My voice ain't a "rock" voice. It's not soulful, in the traditional rock way; It's not about "guts". It's untrained, unschooled, I never questioned why I was singing high. It just happened, dictated by the songs. Ron has always written Sparks' lyrics and never transposed them into a rock key for me to sing. He always packed each line with words and I had to sing them as they were.^[7]

Re-recordings

An acoustic version of the song was recorded in 1985 for the B-side of the "Change" single.

In 1997, Sparks recorded two new versions of the song for their album Plagiarism. The first was an orchestral reworking arranged and conducted by Tony Visconti which reinstated a verse that Winwood had cut from the original. The other was as a collaboration with Faith No More, which was released as a single and peaked at number 40 on the UK Singles Chart.^[8]

Reception

The Guardian said the song "was like a three-minute warning that Sparks were a band different from any other: octave-leaping vocals, gunshots, incomprehensible lyrics and an unrelenting sense of drama."^[9]

Track listing

• 1974 original release

1. "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" – 3:06
2. "Barbecutie" – 3:10

Personnel

• Russell Mael – vocals
• Ron Mael – keyboards
• Martin Gordon – bass
• Adrian Fisher – guitar
• Norman "Dinky" Diamond – drums

Chart positions

Original release (1974) Chart Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[10] 69 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[11] 4 France (SNEP)[12] 15 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[13] 5 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[14] 4 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[15] 7 UK (Official Charts Company)[4] 2 Sparks vs. Faith No More (1997) Chart (1997/98) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[16] 69 Scotland (OCC)[17] 39 UK (Official Charts Company)[4] 40 Chart (2012) Peak position Belgium (Ultratop 50 Back Catalogue Singles Flanders)[18] 47

Certifications

Chart	Certifications (sales thresholds)
UK (Official Charts Company)	BPI: Silver[19]

Cover versions

• Siouxsie and the Banshees included a rendition of the song on their 1987 covers album Through the Looking Glass as the opening track.^[20]
• Heavens Gate included a version on their 1996 album Planet E. ^[21]
• British Whale (recording alias of The Darkness singer/songwriter Justin Hawkins) released a version as his debut single in August 2005,^[22] which peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart.^[23] Ron and Russell Mael appear in the video for the song, as game show hosts.
• Portuguese band Humanos in their concerts performed a live version, mashing it with "O Corpo É Que Paga" by Portuguese 1980's icon António Variações,^[24] which is available on their live DVD.^[25]
• In live concerts, the Los Angeles/San Francisco glam rock band Celebrity Skin performed the song regularly during live performances beginning in 1987.^[26]
• Sparks' 1997 album Plagiarism included two collaborations with Faith No More – "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and "Something for the Girl with Everything".^[27] Faith No More performed the song live during their 1997–1998 and reunion tours.^[28]
• In a deleted scene from The Sparks Brothers "Weird Al" Yankovic played the song instrumentally on the accordion.^[29]
• In August 2024, The Last Dinner Party released a rendition of the song as the first single from the expanded version of their album Prelude to Ecstasy.

In popular culture

The song appears in a dream sequence, in an episode of the British sitcom Green Wing. The original track is mimed by two of the characters, Dr. "Mac" Macartney and Dr Alan Statham, who pretend to be Russell and Ron Mael respectively.

The original Sparks version of the song is heard in the 2010 movie Kick-Ass.

The song is used in episode 2 of Telltale's video game series Guardians of the Galaxy.

The song is used in Season 1, Episode 8 of Justified: City Primeval in a scene with a confrontation between two characters.

References

1. Savage, Jon (1 February 2013). "The 20 best glam-rock songs of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
2. Reed, Ryan (20 November 2019). "A Guide to Progressive Pop". Tidal. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
3. Bradley, Larry (November 4, 2014). "The 1970s: Sparks - "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us". The Alternative Jukebox. Cassell. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-84403-789-6.
4. "Sparks". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
5. "Sparks".
6. Daryl Easlea (7 April 2010). Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-237-7.
7. The Word, No. 36, February 2006.
8. "The Record Producers: Tony Visconti". allsparks. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
9. Alexis Petridis. "The 70 greatest No 2 singles – ranked!". The Guardian.
10. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 286. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
11. "Sparks – This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
12. "This town ain't big enough for both of us in French Chart" (in French). Dominic DURAND / InfoDisc. Retrieved 6 June 2013. You have to use the index at the top of the page and search "Sparks"
13. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Sparks" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
14. "Sparks – This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
15. "Sparks – This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us". Swiss Singles Chart.
16. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
17. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
18. "50 Back Catalogue Singles – 27 October 2012". Ultratop 50. Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
19. "British certificates: searchable database". bpi.co.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
20. Webb, Robert (2012). "This Wheel's on Fire". The 100 Greatest Cover Versions: the Ultimate Playlist. Pembroke Dock: McNidder & Grace. ISBN 9780857160577.
21. "Heavens Gate - Planet E. - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives". www.metal-archives.com. Retrieved 2024-09-29.
22. "Watch British Whale's This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us video". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
23. "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us". Official Charts. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
24. "Vontade". Diario di Noticias (in Portuguese). 28 June 2005. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
25. "Antonio variações - o corpo é que paga (semi-original)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
26. "Celebrity Skin: Freewheeling flash and good, frantic fun". Chicago Tribune. September 6, 1991. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
27. Easlea, Daryl (2011). Talent is an Asset: the story of Sparks. London: Music Sales. ISBN 9780857122377.
28. "Faith No More played 2 LA shows (pics, video, setlists), say they 'will not exist after tonight'". BrooklynVegan. December 2, 2010. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
29. Whitaker, Marisa (November 2, 2021). "'Weird Al' Yankovic Releases Cover Of Sparks' 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us'". Retrieved 20 October 2022.