"Can't Get Along (Without You)" is a single from

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

band

Hard-Fi Hard-Fi is an English indie rock band, formed in 2003 in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey. The band consists of Richard Archer ( lead vocals and guitar), Ross Phillips (guitar and backing vocals), Kai Stephens (bass guitar and backing vocals) and S ...

, taken from their second album ''

Once Upon a Time in the West ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' ( is a 1968 epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati, based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci and Leone. It stars Henry Fonda, playing against t ...

''. It was released on 4 November 2007.

Richard Archer Richard Archer (born 18 January 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, principal songwriter and main composer of indie rock band Hard-Fi. Hard-Fi have produced several top 10 hits and two No. ...

has said that he thought it to be one of his best songs and TV presenter

Tim Lovejoy Timothy Paul Lovejoy (born 28 March 1968) is an English television presenter best known for hosting Saturday morning football programme '' Soccer AM'' with Helen Chamberlain for over a decade and ''BT Sports Panel'' on Saturday mornings. He ...

said that it was one of the best records he had ever heard. However, despite all this, the single only managed to reach #45 in the UK Singles Chart which made it their worst charting single to date until June 2011 where "Good For Nothing" peaked six places lower at 51. On the other hand, the single has had an unexpected success in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

reaching #1 in its second and third week.

History

This R&B swagger is the oldest song on ''

'' and was actually originally written with

Archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern ...

's original band Contempo. It was originally going to be featured on ''

Stars of CCTV ''Stars of CCTV'' is the debut studio album by English indie rock band Hard-Fi. It was first released on 4 July 2005 through Necessary Records and Atlantic Records. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the 2005 Mercur ...

'' but Archer says it just did not feel right despite him believing it to be a great track capable of reaching #1. They re-recorded it for ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' and this time "it just felt right", according to Archer. It has a very notable soul influence, Archer explains that

are big fans of

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

and that the genre runs through the "

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

" that makes up their music. The single version is slightly different, it does not have the countdown at the beginning and explicit language is replaced with more appropriate words. It was mixed by Mark 'Spike' Stent.

"Soul music is in the DNA of Hard-Fi. We love all that 1960s soul. It’s got a beat you want to dance to and a melody you want to sing along to but it also says something that touches you emotionally. We’ve always wanted to write great songs that people can connect with and be positive and passionate rather than negative and cynical".

The song's story, as Archer explains,

"Is about a man whose life falls to pieces when he leaves the girl he loves. He thinks it's the best thing to do but it's obviously not. He realises what he's done and tries to go back and fix it. Parts of it are autobiographical, you want to make a good story and spice it up a bit. Everyone's been through a situation like that".

The song has been listed for 2 weeks on the UK Singles Top 75. It entered the chart on #45, its last appearance was on #70 which during that week was the largest free faller.

Music video

The video was first announced through a blog written by guitarist Ross Phillips on the band's MySpace page on 1 October 2007.

Last week we shot a video for the next single "Can't Get Along". In a nutshell the video is Rich being chased around Berlin by a big, rock hard looking German with a tache. Us 3 make some small cameo appearances, but other than that we sat around laughing at Rich, drinking beer and eating sausages. Happy days. This video has got it all; People smashing through windows, jumping through hedges, car chases and birds. What more could you want? Rich even did his own stunts! Other than making videos we have begun our quest to take over the modern world. So far so good - Sell out tours of the UK (Thanks to everyone who came, we had a right laugh), NUMBER 1 ALBUM (Thanks so much to everyone who brought it) and various European shows that have been fucking great. Next stop is Australia. We're all looking forward to it. I might buy a surf board.

The video directed by Rozan & Schmeltz, premiered on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

at 12:30pm just after

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which originally began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. From 2005 to 2023, episodes h ...

on 8 October 2007, much like

Suburban Knights "Suburban Knights" is the first single from British rock band Hard-Fi's second studio album ''Once Upon a Time in the West''. The physical format of the single was released on 20 August 2007, the digital version was released on 6 August 2007. ...

Track listings

CD

#Can't Get Along (Without You) #Little Angel (Demo)

7" single 1

#Can't Get Along (Without You) #These Four Walls And I

7" single 2

#Can't Get Along (Without You) #Can't Get A Dub (Without Wrongtom)

Track listing controversy

The track "These Four Walls And I" is available only through vinyl, this has sparked many complaints on the official fan forum as many complained that it is virtually impossible for them to get hold of the track as they do not own a vinyl player and even if they did, it would cost them too much hassle and money to convert the song to

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

format to make it possible to hear the track on an

MP3 Player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...

such as

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...

or on a PC. On 24 December 2007, this issue was resolved as on the iTunes Store a new ''

'' package was released featuring the original track listing plus "These Four Walls and I" along with the never before released " Suburban Knights (Acoustic)" and the full length mix of the " Suburban Knights Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso mix".

Charts

"Can't Get Along (Without You)" was listed for two weeks on the UK Singles Chart. It entered the chart at number 45 on 18 November 2007, where it dropped to number 70 the following week making it the biggest free faller of the week.

Alternative covers

File:Hard-Fi - Can't Get Along (Without You) 2.PNG, UK, 7" Vinyl 2 File:Hard-Fi - Can't Get Along (Without You) radio edit.png, UK, CD, Radio Edit Edition

References

External links

* * {{authority control Hard-Fi songs 2007 singles Songs written by Richard Archer 2006 songs Warner Music Group singles