Nobody Wants to Be Lonely
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| “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely” | ||
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| Single by Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera from the album Sound Loaded |
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| Released | February 6, 2001 | |
| Format | Airplay, CD single | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 4:11 | |
| Label | Sony | |
| Writer(s) | Desmond Child Gary Burr Victoria Shaw |
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| Producer | Walter Afanasieff | |
| Certification | Gold (ARIA) | |
| Ricky Martin singles chronology | ||
| "She Bangs" (2000) |
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" (2001) |
"Loaded" (2001) |
| Christina Aguilera singles chronology | ||
| "Christmas Time" (2000) |
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" (2001) |
"Falsas Esperanzas" (2001) |
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" is second single from Ricky Martin's second English album, Sound Loaded. Released in 2001, the single (which is a duet with Christina Aguilera) peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming Martin's 4th Top 20 hit and Aguilera's 6th Top 20 hit. The single also peaked at #4 in the UK and #6 in Australia. The single is most known for being a leader in showing that high profile singles could still do relatively well without major commercial releases (which helped usher in the social norm of today's singles).
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[edit] Song information
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" was written by Desmond Child, Gary Burr and Victoria Shaw. The song was produced by Walter Afanasieff who has co-produced hit singles with Mariah Carey. Like many of Aguilera's previous singles ("What a Girl Wants" and "Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You)", "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" was not released in its original form, as the original album version of "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" had been a soft heartfelt Latin ballad sung only by Ricky Martin. The version released as a single features vocals from both Martin and Aguilera, but also features a more uptempo pop oriented production. In 2001, the song earned nomination for Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals but lost over Lady Marmalade, another collaboration which includes Aguilera.
In this high profile duet of Latin superstars, Ricky Martin sees Aguilera in a darkened room. Aguilera immediately notes Ricky's presence asking him if he can hear her voice, describing it as a serenade so that his heart can find her. The two lonely lovers realize that the feeling of desperation is mutual causing them to question in unison, "Nobody wants to be lonely, So why...Why, why don't you let me love you?"
[edit] Chart success
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" proved to be moderately successful, peaking within the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to its top ten peak on the Hot 100 Airplay. Perhaps more notably, the track went top five on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Critics and fans were slightly disappointed as it was believed that a pairing between the two stars would prove to be a #1 hit, as the two had both become major successes. The single is also noted for being one of the first major single releases to not have a commercial CD/CD Maxi Single. Although songs had been allowed to chart on The Hot 100 without single releases since late 1998, (and one song, Aaliyah's "Try Again" had actually hit #1, followed by Lady Marmalade, which featured Aguilera) most major single releases by major artists still released singles at the time, especially high profile songs such as this. With this single being toted as one of the most high profile duets that year, the music community was then understandably shocked when it was announced that no CD or CD Maxi Single would be released for the song.
As the version promoted to radio was not found on Ricky Martin's album, and the single would not be released commercially, fans and critics were left to wonder how the song would reach listeners. In a bold move of the time, Ricky's record company, Sony, decided to come up with a relatively innovative solution. Fans who already owned the CD could insert the album into their computer, log online to the internet, and download an encoded version of the song only allowed for owners of the CD based on the album's unique identity pattern. As an alternative to this method, and because the internet was still not as powerful of a force as it is now, owners of the CD could also obtain a free promotional CD Single of the song if they sent in proof of purchase to Sony.
However, this method seemed to backfire on Sony. Although fans of Martin could benefit, fans of Ms. Aguilera were peeved as they felt that they should be able to obtain the song without buying Mr. Martin's album (which went against the sneaky plans of Sony to help increase album sales of Sound Loaded by thinking that Aguilera fans would have no choice, but to buy the album.) However, the fans of Aguilera and casual listeners (who enjoyed the song, but were not really fans of either artist) were not pleased with this option, and Sony was flooded with complaints over the limited options of release of this single. To quickly control damage, the free promotional CD Singles of "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" were sent to stores and ordered to be packaged with rubber bands to the original album to entice people to buy the album (with Sony thinking that people would be more encouraged to buy the album if they could see the free promotional CD Single instead of having to send in proof of purchase to get it).
However, this ploy quickly failed too. With the free downloading craze at its peak in 2001, people who enjoyed the song ended up just downloading an illegal mp3 of it for free anyway. With not many people buying the album even with the free promotional CD Single attached to it directly, Sony finally gave up, and with an overshipment of these free promotional CD Singles, the free promotional CD Singles ended up being given away for free or sold for 1 Cent.
All in all, although the promotional campaign of Sony failed, the effort was applauded as it broke new ground in how to release a single (or a remixed single) that had not been found on the original album without releasing a CD Single. As the song did not have a major single release as detailed, the song is generally believed to be a leader among songs that could be released without commercial releases and still do relatively well; the song is often recognized for helping to cause the decline of CD singles especially the great decline of 2001/2002. Although people feel that the song "flopped" by not hitting the Top 10, it should be recognized that the song may well have hit the Top 10 had there been a single release. Its non-Top 10 status was a "sacrifice" in a sense, giving record companies the courage to keep releasing songs without singles until it became the socially accepted norm on the Hot 100.
Internationally, the single saw a commercial release and became a strong top five hit in the UK and Canada and top 10 in Australia.
[edit] Alternative covers
| Commercial | UK |
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[edit] Charts
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" debuted at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100
"Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" was ranked at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts (2001)
| Chart | Position |
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| Billboard Hot 100 | 13 |
| Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | 10 |
| Top 40 Tracks | 10 |
| Top 40 Mainstream | 8 |
| Rhythmic Top 40 | 20 |
| Adult Top 40 | 27 |
| Adult Contemporary | 3 |
| Latin Pop Airplay | 21 |
| Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay | 28 |
| United World Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 4 |
| Chile Top 100 | 3 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 4 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 13 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 6 |
| Finland Singles Chart | 4 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart | 1 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 8 |
| Indonesian Clear Top 10 Charts | 1 |
| Sweden Top 60 Singles | 3 |
| Country | Peak Position | Certification (If Any) | Sales/shipments |
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| Australia | Platinum | 70,000+ | |
| Sweden | Gold | 10,000+ | |
| Switzerland | Gold | 20,000+ |
| Preceded by "Love Don't Cost a Thing" by Jennifer Lopez |
United World Chart number one single April 7, 2001 |
Succeeded by "It Wasn't Me by Shaggy |
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