How Music Fans in Downtown New York and Around the World Mourn the DeathBenny MardonesMany pick up the singer's songs from the 80s.
Mardones, also known as "The Voice", died Monday at his California home after battling Parkinson's disease for nearly two decades. He was 73 years old.
He is best known for "Into the Night", one of the few songs to reach the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 twice. The rock ballad appeared on their 1980 album Never Run, Never Hide and peaked at number 11 that year; Nine years later, an Arizona radio DJ said, "Where are they now?" Special helped popularize the song again, peaking at number 20 in the US in 1989.
During those nine years, he struggled with cocaine and alcohol and quit acting after his 1981 album flopped. After the birth of her son in 1985, she moved to Syracuse to recover. Successfully breaking his drug addiction, he began performing again with a local band, The Hurricanes, which drew large crowds of 15,000 at Long Branch Park and 24,000 at Weedsport Speedway.
"When I was a drug addict, Syracuse opened its arms to me," he said.he said syracuse.comin 2017, before playingyour last showat Turning Stone Resort Casino. "He gave me my life back. The fans never wavered. Radio stations played my songs.”
To this day, the opening notes of "Into the Night" are instantly recognizable to fans of '80s music, and the lyrics, which begin with the lines "She's only sixteen / Leave her alone, they say", still are sometimes debated.
Here are five little-known facts about Benny Mardones' "Into the Night":
1. Meaning of the song "Into the Night"
What does "at night" mean? Is it about a creepy older man who hits a 16 year old girl? Mardones, who co-wrote the song with Robert Tepper, was 33 when it was released. Tepper, best known for his rendition of "No Easy Way Out" on the "Rocky IV" soundtrack, turned 30. And it didn't help that the music video shows Mardones looking at a younger woman through her bedroom window, which eventually leads her to a little bit of magic. walk on the rug and kiss her.
hat Aber Mardonesexplained several timesover the years that music is not cool or even sexual. Living in New York's Spanish Harlem in 1979, he was inspired by three teenage neighbors whose father got a hit on Broadway and ran off with a choir director. She offered to help them and their mother with the rent, paid the kids to run errands and clean the apartment; He gave the 16-year-old, a girl named Heidi, $50 a week to walk her dog, named Zanky.
In 2011, he opened up about his platonic relationship in an interview withSongfacts.com:
"One night Robert Tepper and I were writing songs... And she came in, 16 years old, dressed for school in a miniskirt, little heels, adorable, 16 to 21 years old. She said, 'You stayed up all night ?' and of course it was obvious. I said, "Yeah, we do." She says, "Okay, come on, Zanky" and takes the dog for a walk. When she leaves and walks out the door, my partner is like, 'Oh my God. I said, 'Hi, Bob. She's only 16, leave her alone." And literally five minutes later I was like, 'Play that lick again Bobby. Then he played the lick and I was like (singing) "She's only 16, leave her alone." Then I thought of her father and what he had done, and I said to myself, "Except the fools who still don't know what love is." The chorus was: "You're too young for me, but if I could fly I'd pick you up and carry you into the night and show you love like you've never seen." Then comes the line "It's like having it all and letting on a dream where no one has a heart. It's like having it all, everything, and watching it fall apart." Because her success wasn't the family's success, it was hers alone. "I can't measure my love, there's nothing like it": it was about leaving this family and this 16-year-old girl."
They remained friends for years and sent her Christmas cards long after she got married and moved to Puerto Rico.
2. More than a one-hit wonder
"Into the Night" is one of 10 songs to reach the top 20 twice on the Billboard Hot 100. Others include Chubby Checker's The Twist (1960 and 1962); Ben E. King's Stand By Me (1961 and 1986, thanks to the film of the same name); The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" (1965 and 1990, after the song was featured in Patrick Swayze's "Ghost"; and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1976 and 1992, based on the epic dubbing scene in "Wayne's World 2").
But "Into the Night" has already made the charts three timesbillboard. DJ Eric Kupper's 2019 dance remix hit #35 on the Dance Club Songs chart.
Although Mardones was his only real "hit", he achieved a different kind of chart success: the song spent 37 (non-consecutive) weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, beating the record set by Laura Branigan's "Gloria".WFGR. It spent 20 weeks on the chart in 1980 and 17 weeks in 1989. (The record has since been broken by other songs; Syracuse Post Malone's 2019 release "Circles" spent 39 weeks in the top 10.)
3. Blacklisted?
Mardones said that it was difficult for "Into the Night" to become a hit because radio stations were concerned about the song's subject or had issues with his race.
"When it first came out, R&B stations across America thought I was black. Then they found out I was white and they dropped the record," he said.Songfacts.comin 2011. “White radio was afraid to play it because they thought it was about me dating a 16-year-old boy my age. So Polydor Records sent about 3,000 letters to radio stations across the country explaining what the song was really about. And the song was added and almost immediately started playing across the United States.”
4. Usher and Other Versions
Mardones has recorded several versions of "Into the Night" over the years, including a 1989 re-recording on his 1989 self-titled album for Curb Records and an acoustic version for a 2002 compilation. Conrad Hilton (no relation to the Hilton Hotels family) and 2019 club remixes by Eric Kupper and DJ duo Dirty Werk.
Several artists have also covered the song, including Jamaican reggae singer Junior Tucker. Their 1991 song titled "16 (Into The Night)" was a minor hit in Australia.
Usher: The R&B superstar behind the hits "OMG", "Yeah!" and "U Remind Me" - try the track from "Making Love (Into the Night)" featured on their 2010 release "Raymond v. Raymond" included. The album went platinum and sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
5. Breaking Bad
The song was featured in a 2009 episode of Breaking Bad. In Season 2, Episode 4 ("Down"), "Into the Night" is set in a supermarket where Walter White (Bryan Cranston) meets Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).
Into the Night also appeared in a 2014 episode of Life After Beth by Aubrey Plaza and in the 2016 film Nerve, starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco.
Mardones is survived by his wife Jane, son Michael and sister Louise.
A memorial service will be announced soon, says oneExplanation.
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FAQs
What is the story behind Into the Night? ›
But Mardones has explained many times over the years that the song is not statutory or even sexual. While living in New York's Spanish Harlem in 1979, he was inspired by three teen neighbors whose father had scored a Broadway hit and ran off with a chorus line girl.
How old was Benny Mardones when he made the song Into the Night? ›Though the opening lines (“She's just 16 years old/ 'Leave her alone,' they said”) made many listeners uncomfortable coming from the then-33-year-old Mardones, he would later explain the song was inspired by his platonic relationship with a teenage neighbor of his whose father had left her.
Is Benny Mardones still alive? › What does Into the Night mean? ›DEFINITIONS1. at or until a time that is very late at night.
What was the controversy with the song Into the Night? ›The song's controversial lyrics, "She's just sixteen years old," came about after Tepper made a comment about the 16-year-old girl who used to walk Mardones' basset hound. In an interview with KTLA some time before his death, Mardones says he told Tepper, "She's just 16 years old, leave her alone."
Who wrote only 16? ›"Only Sixteen" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, released in May 1959. The song was a top 15 hit on Billboard's Hot R&B Sides chart and also charted within the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.
How old is the song the story? ›"The Story" is a song released as a single by American folk rock singer Brandi Carlile, written by Phil Hanseroth, from her 2007 album The Story. It was featured in Grey's Anatomy in 2007 and is on Grey's Anatomy Soundtrack album 3 (released September 11).
When was the night song made? ›"The Night" is a song by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons that was originally released in 1972.
When was Into the Night made? ›The series premiered on Netflix on May 1, 2020. It is Netflix's first Belgian original series. On July 1, 2020, the series was renewed by Netflix for a second season. The second season premiered on September 8, 2021, while a Turkish language submarine-set spin-off, Yakamoz S-245, was released on April 20, 2022.
Who was a one-hit wonder twice? ›Benny Mardones – the only singer in history to be a one-hit wonder… twice!
Is Hozier a one-hit wonder? ›
One of the most soulful one-hit wonders from the 2010's, Hozier originally recorded “Take Me to Church” in his parents' attic. The struggling Irish musician released it as a free download before including the track on his 2014 self-titled debut album.
What was Billy Ray Cyrus's biggest hit? ›He has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, and is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and became the first single ever to achieve triple platinum status in Australia. It was also the best-selling single in the same country in 1992.
What Is the Meaning of night poem? ›"Night" is a poem in the illuminated 1789 collection Songs of Innocence by William Blake, later incorporated into the larger compilation Songs of Innocence and of Experience. "Night" speaks about the coming of evil when darkness arrives, as angels protect and keep the sheep from the impending dangers.
What does a spirit night mean? ›Spirit Night is an almost entirely student-run activity that brings the student population together in competition.
Why do we say at the night? ›At or in? In the night usually refers to one particular night; at night refers to any night in general: I was awake in the night, thinking about all the things that have happened. 'It's not safe to travel at night,' the officer said.
What is the message the song? ›The song's lyrics describe the stress of inner-city poverty. In the final verses it is described how a child born in the ghetto without perspective in life is lured away into crime, for which he is jailed until he commits suicide in his cell.
Which song was banned by the BBC in the 1960s for being too morbid? ›Monster Mash - Bobby 'Boris' Pickett
With lyrics like "it was a graveyard smash", the BBC failed to see the funny side and banned the song for being "too morbid". Though it made No. 1 on the Billboard charts in the year it was written, the offending novelty hit didn't chart in the UK until 1973, when it went to No.
"Strange Fruit," Billie Holiday (1939)
Written by Abel Meeropol and recorded by the legendary Holiday, this is a track protesting the lynching of black people. Some have gone as far to claim that the song helped start the civil rights movement, or at the very least, open Americans' eyes to this despicable issue.
The story portrays a man who meets a suicidal girl and falls for her. She is attracted to 'death' and always time after time attempts to commit suicide but everytime she does, the man will talk her down and prevent her from doing so. It's said that the God of death will resemble one's ideal person.
Who is Heidi from Into the Night song? ›Benny Mardones told Songfacts that the 16-year-old girl he's singing about was named Heidi, and she lived in his apartment in Spanish Harlem. Their relationship was purely platonic, however, as Benny looked after Heidi and her family after her father left. Benny would pay her $50 a week to walk his basset hound, Zanky.
Where was Benny Mardones buried? ›
Mardones, whose hit song “Into the Night” hit Billboard's Top 20 charts twice in nine years, died at his California home June 29 after battling Parkinson's disease. His wife, Jane Mardones, said Sunday that she will bury him in the Syracuse area. “I have to bring him home,” she said from their house in California.
What happens during music of the Night? ›Synopsis. "The Music of the Night" is sung after the Phantom lures Christine Daaé to his lair beneath the Opera House. He seduces Christine with "his music" of the night, his voice putting her into a type of trance. He sings of his unspoken love for her and urges her to forget the world and life she knew before.
What does YOASOBI mean in Japanese? ›YOASOBI—the name is derived from the Japanese word for going out at night and having a good time—began when Ayase, a musician who produces songs using the Vocaloid voice synthesizer software, received a pitch from Sony Music Entertainment.
What is Night song about? ›A breathtaking picture book illustrated by mega-bestseller Loren Long, about a young bat setting off into the world using only his good sense! Sense is the song you sing out into the world, and the song the world sings back to you. With these words, Chiro's mother sends him off into the night for the first time alone.