“I Think We’re Alone Now” is a song covered by Tiffany Darwish in 1987 having been originally a 1967 #1 hit. The Tiffany recording reached #1 on the charts of various countries including the US, UK, Canada, and New Zealand. The writing of the song was credited to Ritchie Cordell, who wrote or co-wrote many songs for Tommy James, including the follow-up single to “I Think We’re Alone Now“, “Mirage” and its B-side “Run, Run, Baby, Run”, and 1968’s “Mony Mony”. Cordell and his regular songwriting partner Bo Gentry gave the song to Tommy James, who thought it sounded like a hit. According to Tommy James, “I Think We’re Alone Now” was written by Cordell and Gentry, but as Gentry was still under contract to Kama Sutra Records, the head of Roulette Records, Morris Levy, agreed to a deal naming Cordell as sole writer but splitting the royalties with Gentry.
The lyrics of the song speak of parental prohibition, especially against sexual activities, and have both the narrator and the person being addressed “trying to get away into the night” to avoid, evade, or defy such prohibition. The first few words of the song, “Children behave! That’s what they say when we’re together. And watch how you play,” hint at this.
“I Think We’re Alone Now″ was re-popularized when American pop singer Tiffany covered the song when she was 15 for her eponymous debut studio album, which was released in 1987 on the MCA Records label. When George Tobin, Tiffany’s manager and producer, gave her the cassette of the original version by Tommy James & the Shondells, Tiffany hated the idea of recording a version of her own for her album, mostly because she thought the song was neither modern enough nor hip enough. According to Tiffany, she also did not know that the song is about the prohibition of teenage sex. The producers then remade the song as a dance track, and when Tiffany played this to her friends, they started to dance to it. Tiffany returned the next day to record the song in around 4 takes.
“I Think We’re Alone Now” proved to be Tiffany’s biggest hit once she did record and release it. Her version of the song spent 2 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and 3 weeks at #1 on the UK Singles Chart.
“I Think We’re Alone Now” was not the 1st single from Tiffany’s debut album. The 1st single was “Danny”, but radio started picking up “I Think We’re Alone Now“, another selection on the album. It became a runaway #1 hit and was the 18th-highest-selling single for 1987 and the 32nd-highest-selling single in Australia for 1988.
The music video was directed entirely by Tobin and shot in numerous shopping malls in Utah, which echoed the way her early career had been promoted. Fashion Place Mall (Murray, Utah), Crossroads Mall (Salt Lake City, Utah), 49th Street Galleria (Murray, Utah) and Ogden City Mall (Ogden, Utah). Elements of the video were filmed in the now demolished Bull Ring Centre in Birmingham, UK. The video was featured in the 2012 film Ted and the song was also on the soundtrack and appears in its sequel.
