Faith No More Released ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’ 28 Years Ago

On December 1st 1997 Faith No More released their collaboration single with Sparks, This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us.

‘They found out that we're fans of theirs, and have asked us to appear on their next album. That's just f**king amazing. Sparks were the first really campy operatic-type band. I always thought Queen ripped them off.’ - Bill Gould 1997 

The original version of the song was featured on the 1974 album Kimono In My House and was the lead single from the album, reaching number 2 in the UK singles chart.

"This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us” was so atypical of the time. It wasn’t your usual verse-chorus-verse song. We’re proud of that fact. A lot of bands seem to enjoy the status quo of things, but we’ve always gone for the more provocative approach. “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us” tries to challenge the listener, to show what pop music is capable of. We did try and recruit Brian May around that time. We met up a few times, just before Queen had really broken through in the States. We were looking for a guitar player for Sparks and he gave it some thought. He was ruminating on it, but it wasn’t to be." - Russell Mael 2006

Sparks' 1997 album Plagiarism included two collaborations with FNM – This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us and Something for the Girl with Everything.

'We’re both real oddball outfits — and we like to push buttons. I get the sense that Sparks put a lot of thought into their presentation and how they come across. Faith No More does too. We started employing ways to (mess) with our audience early on. We rode our bikes up to the weirdo record store and enquired within. There was an ambiguous Bowie type rocker with earrings and colored hair who we were able to confide in. It kind of changed our lives.” - Roddy 2011

FNM have been joined onstage by Sparks to perform the song on two definite occasions, Brixton Academy 29.11.1997 and Hollywood Palladium 01.12.2010. The later performance also featured Dean Menta on guitar who since leaving FNM has performed and recorded with Sparks. Sparks albums that he has contributed to include Plagiarism (1997) Lil' Beethoven (2002) Hello Young Lovers (2006) Exotic Creatures of the Deep (2008) and The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (2009).