benny mardones - "into the night" 1980 version vs. 1989 version

loling at girl sitting stiffly on the flying carpet like he just abducted Helen Keller
she doesn't even LOOK at him until they start making out

Due to the success of "Into the Night," Curb Records signed Mardones and he recorded "Into the Night '89." The track appeared on his self-titled release (known as the "Blue Album" by his fans.) Not long after that, Mardones appeared on a Showtime tribute to Roy Orbison, alongside such luminaries as Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Johnny Cash and k.d. lang. Elvis Presley's band was the house band for the evening. When Mardones came on stage to sing "Running Scared," few people knew his name, but when he finished the song, he received a standing ovation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA3tFmnTULQ

The dad in the video sort of reminds me of strongo. Maybe it is the glasses.

I'm running scared from that mullet.

there's a couple of spots in that performance where he looks genuinely terrified

I secretly love this song and have been able to spend 30+ years pretending it's not the creepiest song ever

ha, this song was always brought up on the yacht rock ilm threads and I could never quite place it. i think it just blended so much into the background and i forever thought it was a journey song or something. he has some of that steve perry emotiveness in his vox

ok fuck – the "Running Scared" cover is not embarrassing. I was hoping it would be.

yeah, dude has a great voice

I always wanted Faith No More to cover "Into The Night" (because I have crush on Mike Patton and that would make the creepy part easier to take, lol)

And yeah Benny's Running Scared is awesome. I've heard it covered a lot and everyone goes for the big powerful build but Benny really nails the emotion.

Yeah, he really picked it up and took it into the night.

I secretly love this song and have been able to spend 30+ years pretending it's not the creepiest song ever

I not-so-secretly love this song despite the fact that it seems like a hastily rewritten paean to the consumption of teenaged flesh.

how dare you dis Benny on my ILX, Haircare!

OMG there is a third studio version of this song from 2002

"This record was initially recorded as the soundtrack to the documentary, Into the Night: The Benny Mardones Story, writes Benny Mardones, in his liner notes for A Journey Through Time

To those listeners outside of Syracuse New York, where Benny Mardones lives, he makes clear that he is, in his own words, "a superstar," playing to audiences of thousands on a regular basis. The fact that Benny Mardones has a documentary about his rise, fall, and comeback is a shocker. ( - Erlewine, AMG)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N1yEvXIyu4

Can not get this song out of my head now, thanks a lot you guys.

Benny Mardones is the new Chubby "The Twist"/"Let's Twist Again"/"The Twist (Yo, Twist!)" Checker.

In the third version, Mardones changed the lyrics to "'She's just sixty-four years old, put her in a home,' they said"

She's, like, 60 years old
Totally gross, I said

looool

You know I realize we keep quoting from the Wikipedia page but the slow burn tautology here:

The story behind "Into the Night" charting twice is this: In 1989, KZZP, a radio station in Arizona, ran a segment titled "Where Are They Now?" The most popular question was "Whatever happened to the guy who sang 'Into the Night'?" Scott Shannon, then program director for Pirate Radio in Los Angeles, added "Into the Night" to its playlist. Radio stations across the country followed suit and "Into the Night" was once again a hit.

Mardones was 33 years old when the song became a hit for the first time and he still lives quite well on the royalties received from this song that was also a hit in 1989.

BTW, the opening fifteen seconds of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM6Gox5Ynu8

I mean, the rest of it as well, of course. Especially when you hear the first use of the title.

modern english had the same thing happen down to the rerecording for new label like a year later w/ 'i melt w/ you', though there it didn't chart either time nearly as high as benny did both times w/ 'if i could fly'. i'm trying to think of other similar instances this has happened w/ us charts/radio, i'm sure in the uk where old songs rechart all the time it's not so rare.

The cowriter of "Into the Night" has his own rep:

Robert Tepper is an American singer, best known for his hit song "No Easy Way Out" from the Rocky IV motion picture soundtrack.

Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Tepper moved to New York where he became a staff writer. He paired up with fellow singer Benny Mardones, and together they wrote Mardones' hit ballad "Into the Night," which earned them a Grammy Awards nomination.

In 1985, Tepper signed with Scotti Brothers and moved to Los Angeles. Actor/director Sylvester Stallone was taken with Tepper's song "No Easy Way Out," which subsequently led to its inclusion in the movie Rocky IV. "No Easy Way Out" climbed into the Top 40, reaching #22 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1986, and momentarily putting Tepper in the public eye. Several European labels, including Ministry of Sound, released "No Easy Way Out" with their own dance versions, and the hard rock group Bullet For My Valentine also recorded the song in 2008. In 1986, one year after "Rocky IV" another song from the album "no easy way out" called "angel of the city" became the main song of Stallone´s film "Cobra". With "Angel of the city" Tepper was not as successful as with "no easy way out"; the movie "Cobra" was not a hit. Tepper released two solo albums for Scotti Bros. Records but both albums received little promotion from the label. Also in 1986 he co-wrote the single "Le Bel Age" for Pat Benatar with peaked at #54 on the Billboard charts. He went on to join the classic hard rock group "Iron Butterfly" for a few years. His third solo album No Rest For The Wounded Heart was released exclusively in Europe in 1996 on the MTM Music label.

In 2009, Sony/BMG released his first two albums digitally.

In recent years he ventured into writing music for television and film, and collaborated on a musical. There are plans for his fourth solo album to be released in 2011.[dated info] The music will be a departure from the big rock sound of the 1980s and has been described as "acoustic, singer/songwriter with an electric tinge."

In 2012 he released his fourth solo album New Life Story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgohFX9VlJ8

Oh did I mention the Solid Gold appearance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTRBueh2j6w

I was too young to open my legs the first time but this got, like, blanket airplay in the late spring and early summer of '89 on Miami's Y-100. The Gruesome Twosome used to be this and NKOTB's "I'll Be Loving You Forever," with which it and "Into The Night" share a, shall we say, constituency.

Well now I'm imagining Benny singing that to Donnie Wahlberg and thanks for nothing, Alfred.

He's just sixteen years old
Whatever the hell
Dude said.

boy my dog does NOT like 'she's so french'

le woof!

Your dog has the right damn idea.

My kid begged me to turn it off. She had a point. xp

she's just three years old
twenty one in
dog years

Another Tepper cowrite from Never Run Never Hide. Comparatively saner/duller, just.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wFHO-1_G0

have you been listening to this album all afternoon? Brave man.

Hey, it beats Medicine.

It's that boring at work.

"Crazy Boy"! Cowritten by the "She's So French" cowriter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oriuPKe-6T8

wow B+ from xgau

xpost -- That cowriter, BTW, ALSO has his own rep -- I give you D. L. Byron, aka David Leigh Byron, from his 1980 album This Day and Age:

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-2936524-1323812317.jpeg

"Listen to the Heartbeat"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjzE0AANHJY

Okay you have to c/p the full review there.

Back to Benny -- "Hold Me Down" -- and quite the opening scream there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98JJsnafYQ

man who originated this lou gramm/steve perry rock vocal style? paul rodgers?

Was wondering that. I've heard Rodgers be credited/blamed for it before so I think you're right. Before that...who was Free's lead vocalist?

And the next song on Benny's album was "American Bandstand" -- so no points in guessing where he ended up playing it once:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWtR1DaOedA

lol jk about xgau

paul rodgers was free's vocalist! i think

Ah well, that makes sense then, doesn't it! :-D

"Hey Baby"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS9is-v8a0

"Hometown Girls"! Almost properly new wave there at the start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN4kql72WHg

And finally, yes, "Too Young"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDCuHYO1r8w

re "Hey Baby" -- that's not the Bruce Channel classic is it

Oh Jesus Christ, there's a FOURTH version of "Into the Night"...

ACOUSTIC!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZBbcrcRgMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZBbcrcRgMA

xpost - O FUCK YOU