Tired of Being Alone

Green wrote it in late 1968 for Green Is Blues, but problems with the first recording meant it was postponed, and it was reworked and perfected the second time. Mitchell produced and recorded it at Hi, and he and Terry Manning mixed it. The Guardian's Angus Batey tells it that the lyric came to Green after music in his head woke him during a stopover on his way back to Memphis from a gig in Detroit. He finished the song as dawn broke, then went back to his motel bed and fell straight asleep, and Batey thought the song and the performance share some of the qualities of a dream. Batey said it was this song, rather than the Temptations cover before it, that defined his signature sound.

In 1971 it reached number 11 on the Hot 100 and number seven on the Soul Singles chart, and Billboard ranked it the 12th song of the year. It sold a million and was certified gold, the first of eight gold singles Green would release between 1971 and 1974. Rolling Stone placed it at number 293 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs.

Live and covers

In 1973 Green performed it with Chicago on the TV special Chicago in the Rockies, and that recording was a bonus track on the 2002 remaster of Chicago VI. The Scottish band Texas covered it in 1992, taking it to number 19 on the UK Singles Chart, and later re-recorded it for their 2000 album The Greatest Hits. Sybil released it as a non-album single in 1996, reaching number 53 in the UK.