Living Next Door to Alice

In 1976, British band Smokie covered “Living Next Door to Alice”, a song originally written and produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapmann and was released by Australian vocal harmony trio New World in 1972. “Living Next Door to Alice” was featured on the Smokie’s 1976 album “Midnight Café”.

“Living Next Door to Alice” tells a story about a young man’s unrequited love with his next door neighbour Alice, whom he has known for 24 years of his life. The track also tells us that the protagonist watches Alice move away at the end of the song, who learnt about the news through their friend Sally.

The music video for “Living Next Door to Alice” was released in 1976, and features the Smokies singing the track in a dark room with shots of mirrored images and zooming in on the singer’s face. Since its upload on YouTube in June 2015, the video has 85.6 million views and over 266 thousand likes.

Release Date: 12th August 1976

Songwriter/s: Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman

Producer/s: Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman

Label/s: RAK (UK) & RSO (US & Canada)

Music Video Release Date: 1976

Music Video Director: n/a

Chart Rankings: In its year of release, the Smokie’s cover of “Living Next Door to Alice” charted at #1 in Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland; #17 in Canada, #2 in South Africa, #3 in Sweden, #5 in the UK, and #25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts.

The lyrics to “Living Next Door to Alice” can be viewed here: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/smokie/livingnextdoortoalice.html