Into the Night

So, I have been reading quite a bit about Benny Mardones and "Into the Night."  It seems to be quite the controversial song because of its lyrics -- especially the beginning.  Let's take a look: "She's just 16 years old, leave her alone, they say..."  Well, okay -- I can imagine that those lyrics could case a ruckus.  People often take the lyrics for face value and claim that the song is about a man in love with a young woman who is, well, not legal.  I may be in the minority, but to me, lyrics are lyrics.  Sometimes they are true, direct, plain, simple -- but many times (more often than not) they are a metaphor or have been written to "fit nicely" with the song.  If you think about Billy Joel's "Allentown" (which you can hear in my blog entry "Sunday Night Block"), I read that the original song was supposed to be "Bethlehem," as in Bethlehem, PA.  But,  "Allentown" sounded better -- so he used it (probably because it ends in "town").  Allentown is near Bethlehem anyway, so it works!  Point being, Benny Mardones could have put other lyrics in for the girl's age, or he could have changed the lyrics entirely.  I'm here writing this blog, and I could easily sing, "I'm just sitting at home, writing a blog, to-day..."  It doesn't really matter.  The song is beautiful with gorgeous vocals and kind of a "romantic" piano line.  There's a general sense that this man is deeply in love with a woman and wants to give her his heart.  That's all.

The more interesting part of this story is Benny Mardones and his life.  He had written many songs for other artists and was encouraged to record one of his own.  The song is kind of a "one hit wonder," but it is pleasant, soothing, distinctive.  Mr. Mardones suffered from drug addiction after he made it big.  We have seen this happen with so many gifted musicians.  The good news was that someone in his life took him to Syracuse, NY to recover and get his life together.  Today, supposedly, he still has a huge following in Syracuse, which makes me smile since I am from Upstate NY, too.  Yes, the good people of our state helped this man recover and supported him through hard times.  Upstate NY is a great place with good people!  That aside, the song is simply a good tune.  Make what you want of it, and enjoy it's melody and vocals.  It is number 5 on the Amazon MP3 Player II to the right.  There is no official video, either, so I picked something general from YouTube with a nice picture of Benny from back in the day.  Enjoy!