Today’s classic night song of the day fast forwards to September of 1982 and the single “Shadows of the Night” by Pat Benatar. This track, supported by a ton of MTV play, hit #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on Billboard’s Top Rocks Track chart.
“Shadows of the Night” was written by D.L. Byron for the 1980 movie, Times Square. The song, unfortunately, did not make it into the movie. Instead, singer Helen Schneider released it in 1981 and it scored big in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, but not in the U.S. Rachel Sweet released a version of the song in the U.S. as a track on her 1981 album, …And Then He Kissed Me, but not as a single.
It took Pat Benatar to make “Shadows of the Night” a bona fide hit here in the States. She and her drummer Myron Grombacher rewrote many of the lyrics and reworked the song musically, shaping it into something much more suitable for Benatar’s fiery vocals. It was good enough to win Ms. Benatar a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Pat Benatar’s cinematic music video for “Shadows of the Night.” Look closely and you’ll see future Hollywood stars Bill Paxton and Judge Reinhold as characters in Ms. Benatar’s imagined WWII drama.
