Paul Davis - "Cool Night"

idk anything else by this dude, but this song has been in my head since around the time it came out. as a kid, I heard it all the time on the adult contemp stations my parents had on in the station wagon, but then it kind of disappeared from my purview by the 90s.

a few years ago (2016, post-Pulse ugliness, pre-election shocker ugliness) I took this road trip to see Eyehategod and Decapitated on separate nights in ATL, and I guess I heard the song when I went to Long JOhn Silver's for lunch, and it kinda just hit the sweet spot for me.

it's been in my head again randomly all month - i keep singing it in the shower. I find it ear-wormy af. I'm sure a lot of posters here think it's cheezmo goo and fair enough if so.

anybody else into this song?

I only just found out Joseph Williams of Toto did his own version, and now I am going to play it to see if I remember that version too.

wow, Joseph Williams's version is dogshit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sCKSqlDaQI

I always had a hard time squaring his smooth-as-silk MOR yacht-rock sound with the fact that he looked like he belonged in Molly Hatchet.

haha, yeah, when I saw what he actually looked like, I was surprised

this is a jam!!

this has been stuck in my head for the 40-odd years since it was new as well. i think i had it on a K-tel LP?

if it don't feel right
u can go

come on OOOOOOOOOOOOOVer toniiiiiiiiiight

why does this song always make me both happy and sad :/

It’s corny as fuck but I love it, was inescapable on FM radio in the 80s

Paul keeps his cool (night) until the end, where the key changes show him trying too hard.

The production is a strange mix of slick and cheap. I don't know if it's a problem with the mastering, but the version I have is very hissy - of course, it was produced before they expected everyone to be listening to crisp digital reproductions instead of forgiving vinyl and cassette.

Any of y'all who grew up with older siblings can likely remember when you started to like different music than whatever your older sisters told you to like? For me, it was around age 7, right as this track began getting serious airplay, and soon became one of my first-ever "That song is great, even if you think it's stupid" songs. I'll admit that I originally thought "Cool Night" was the same band as "You Make My Dreams" and "I Can't Go For That", a mistaken impression that was aided by Paul Davis releasing the equally-awesomely-H&O "'65 Love Affair" later in '82. The fact that radio stations all over the Inland Empire seemed to play all four songs fairly regularly didn't help!

I hadn't heard that Hall and Oates sound in this until I listened to it last night, in both the lead and the background vocals, although they would have given it a little more of a rhythmic kick, I think.

lol, the Paul Davis greatest hits album and Hall & Oates Rock & Soul Vol. 1 were two of the like seven cassettes my mom had in the car when we were growing up.

Yes! That would have been a great way to make a 90-minute ride far less annoying.