Sparks – This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us

“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
Songwriters: Ron Mael
Charted No.2 in UK

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”.

This was written by Sparks in a cold flat in Clapham, South London. Elton John bet Sparks’ producer Muff Winwood that this single wouldn’t crack the UK charts, but Elton was proved wrong as it reached #2.
On Sparks’ Top Of The Pops performance, Marc Bolan lookalike Russell Mael danced around hitting ear-shatteringly high notes, while his toothbrushed sibling, Ron Mael, sat almost motionless at the keyboards, throwing out chilling looks. John Lennon quipped of Ron Mael when he saw Sparks perform: “It’s Hitler on the telly.”

The song became a hit after that appearance, which was delayed by two weeks as the Mael brothers had to sign up to the British Musicians’ Union before they could perform on the show.

Top Of The Pops December 27, 1974.