‘It's My Life’ is a song by the English new wave band Talk Talk. Written by Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene, it was the title track on the band's second album, It's My Life (1984), and released as its first single in January 1984. It reached number 46 on the UK Singles Chart, but did better in several other countries, reaching number 33 in Germany, number 32 in New Zealand, number 25 in France and number 9 in Italy. In North America, it entered the Top 40 in both the United States (at number 31) and Canada (at number 30). It peaked at number 1 on the US Dance Club Songs chart.
The single was re-released in the UK in 1985, but only peaked at 93. In 1990, however, ‘It's My Life’ was reissued again to promote the compilation album Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk. This time, the song was a hit in the UK, reaching number 13, the band's highest chart-placing single in its native country.
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 the 1979 BBC wildlife documentary Life on Earth, interspersed with shots of Talk Talk lead singer Mark Hollis standing in various places throughout the London Zoo. He keeps his hands in his coat pockets and his mouth pointedly shut tight, the latter often obscured by hand-drawn animated lines that occasionally appear in the documentary footage sequences as well. The second version, recorded at the behest of EMI, consisted of the entirety of the original video projected on a green screen behind Hollis on guitar and vocals as well as his two bandmates as they lip-synched and mimed the song, deliberately poorly and with comic exaggerated gestures.
Gwen Stefani's group No Doubt introduced this song to a new generation when they covered it in 2003 for their compilation album The Singles 1992-2003. Their version peaked at #10 in the US and #17 in the UK. No Doubt’s ‘It's My Life’ clip was named Best Pop Video and Best Group Video at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.
Labels – EMI, Parlophone
Songwriters – Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene
Producer – Tim Friese-Greene
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Funny how I find myself in love with you
If I could buy my reasoning, I'd pay to lose
One half won't do
[Pre-Chorus]
I've asked myself, how much do you
Commit yourself?
[Chorus]
It's my life, don't you forget
It's my life, it never ends (It never ends)
[Verse 2]
Funny how I blind myself, I never knew
If I was sometimes played upon, afraid to lose
[Pre-Chorus]
I'd tell myself, what good you do
Convince myself
[Chorus]
It's my life, don't you forget
It's my life, it never ends (It never ends)
[Instrumental]
[Pre-Chorus]
I've asked myself, how much do you
Commit yourself?
[Chorus]
It's my life, don't you forget
Caught in the crowd, it never ends
It's my life, don't you forget
Caught in the crowd, it never ends
It's my life, don't you forget
Caught in the crowd, it never ends