"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" is a song written by Ron Mael of the American pop group Sparks. It is the opening track on their 1974 album Kimono My House, and was the lead single from the album, reaching number 2 in the UK singles chart.

The original idea for the song was that after each verse Russell Mael would sing a movie dialogue cliché, one of which was "This town ain't big enough for the both of us". They dropped the idea of having different phrases and instead used only the one in the title. The original working title of the song was "Too Hot to Handle".

An acoustic version of the song was recorded in 1985 for the B-side of the "Change" single.

In 1997, Sparks recorded two new versions of the song for their album Plagiarism. The first was an orchestral reworking arranged and conducted by Tony Visconti which reinstated a verse producer Muff Winwood had cut from the original. The other was as a collaboration with Faith No More, which was released as a single and reached number 40 in the British singles chart.

Winwood used distinctive Western movie-style gunshots on the recording after a suggestion from engineer Richard Digby-Smith. Digby-Smith added the sound effect after he felt the recorded track 'was missing something', sourcing the gunshots from a BBC sound effects LP.

It has been claimed that Winwood bet with his friend Elton John that the song would become a top-five hit in the UK charts. Elton John bet that it would not; he lost.

Original release (1974)

Sparks Vs. Faith No More (1997)

The vocal sound on the single has been criticised as being "stylised". This may be because the song was written without any regard for the vocal style of Russell Mael. Songwriter Ron Mael has explained:

"This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us" was written in A, and by God it'll be sung in A. I just feel that if you're coming up with most of the music, then you have an idea where it's going to go. And no singer is gonna get in my way.

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Wikipedia