You're Not Alone

Former Simply Red keyboard and trumpet player Tim Kellett was experimenting with sampling other people's vocals and making tape loops. While playing keyboards for the Durutti Column on a couple of gigs he came across a sample by Ruth-Ann Boyle. Around the same time he'd teamed up with dance programmer and ex-Nightmares On Wax member Robin Taylor-Firth to form Olive. The duo loved her voice, tracked Boyle down in a student union bar and asked her to join their recording project. They recorded some demos in Kellett's basement studio, including this song, which was released as Olive's debut single in 1996. However at first the British public failed to catch on to the track and it only reached #42 in the singles charts. Kellett recalled in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner & Spencer Leigh: "We were very disappointed. The subject matter is something anyone can relate to and, unlike many bands we've been compared to, we don't shy away from writing songs with a beginning, a middle and an end." The song was re-released in 1997 with additional mixes by Paul Oakenfold, Roni Size and Nightmares On Wax and this time it climbed to #1 and also reached the Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up single "Outlaw" reached #14 in the UK, but Olive failed to trouble the charts again.