"Only the Lonely" is a song by American new wave band The Motels. It was released in 1982 as the first single from their third studio album All Four One. Propelled by a popular music video, it debuted at number 90 on the U.S. Billboard Hot…
"Only the Lonely" is a song by American new wave band The Motels. It was released in 1982 as the first single from their third studio album All Four One. Propelled by a popular music video, it debuted at number 90 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on April 24, 1982. It would ultimately climb to number 9 on July 17 of that year where it spent four weeks in that position. On the U.S. Cash Box Top 100, it performed slightly better, peaking at number 8 for two weeks.
Lead singer Martha Davis wrote "Only the Lonely" on a guitar that was given to her by her late father—an administrator at the University of California, Berkeley, who found the instrument in Stiles Hall on the campus. She explained the song's inspiration in an interview with Beyond Race magazine:
"...It's a song about empty success. It came about while the Motels were experiencing critical acclaim, traveling the world, riding in limos, and yet I was probably as sad as I had ever been. I was in a horrible relationship and had not yet recovered from my parents' death (I doubt one ever does). The contradiction of these two worlds was where 'Only the Lonely' lived... bittersweet."
The Motels are an American new wave band from Berkeley, California that is best known for the singles "Only the Lonely" and "Suddenly Last Summer", each of which peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, in 1982 and 1983, respectively. In 1980, The Motels song "Total Control" reached No. 7 on the Australian chart (for two weeks), and their song "Danger" reached No. 15 on the French chart.
Martha Davis, the lead singer, reformed a version of the band called "The Motels featuring Martha Davis" in 1998 and toured under that name with various line-ups of musicians.
In 2013, the band was re-christened with a permanent name, Martha Davis and The Motels. That band is touring the world with a line-up of musicians that have been playing with Davis for over 10 years, longer than the original Motels.
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