Written by Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene, it was the title track on the band's second album, It's My Life (1984), and released as its first single in January 1984.

This time, the song was a hit in the UK, reaching number 13, the band's highest chart-placing single in its native country.

Hollis deliberately avoids performing to the camera: He keeps his hands in his coat pockets and his mouth is taped shut,[8][9] the latter often obscured by hand-drawn animated lines that occasionally appear in the documentary footage sequences as well.

[10] The second version, recorded at the behest of EMI, consisted of the entirety of the original video projected on a green screen behind Hollis on guitar and vocals as well as his two bandmates as they lip-synched and mimed the song, deliberately poorly and with comic exaggerated gestures.

The American rock band No Doubt recorded a cover version of the song to promote their first greatest hits album The Singles 1992–2003 (2003).

[34] Jacques Lu Cont, the song's programmer, created the Thin White Duke mix of "It's My Life", which won the award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.

[35] No Doubt's cover version was successful in the United States, reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remaining on the chart for 28 weeks.

It was more of a success across Europe, reaching the top-ten in Italy, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, and the top 20 in Austria, Belgium, France and Switzerland.

She kills the first man (guitarist Tom Dumont) with rat poison mixed into his dinner, the second (bassist Tony Kanal) by running him over with his car, and the third (drummer Adrian Young) by throwing her hair dryer into the bathtub to electrocute him.

These scenes are intercut with moments of Stefani in court and being dragged to the gas chamber, wearing a prison uniform, where she is executed.