Today’s classic song of the night is “Right Time of the Night” by Jennifer Warnes. It was a standout track on Ms. Warne’s fourth album, Jennifer Warnes, and was released as a single on January 1, 1977. That single was the most successful of Ms. Warnes’ solo career, hitting #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, #17 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart, and #1 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
“Right Time of the Night” was written by a chap named Peter McCann. You may remember him from his solo hit, “Do You Wanna Make Love,” a top ten single later in 1977. At the time, he was working as a staff songwriter for American Broadcasting Music but hadn’t had much success. This one was different, as he recalls:
“I played it for [boss] Gerry Teifer… For the first time… he let me play [a] whole song through, and then he did something he’d never done before. He said: ‘Play that again.’ I played it again, and he goes: ‘Wait here.’ He brought in everybody in the building who was working there and said ‘Play it.’ I played it, and they all cheered and went nuts. I thought it was just another song I had written, but apparently not.”
The song originally featured a different second verse with a distinctly masculine slant. (“We’ll go drinkin’ in some heavy bar/I’ll take you night ridin’ in my Chevy car.”) Ms. Warnes suggested some changes to make it more suitable for her, which prompted Mr. McCann to just rewrite that verse himself.
By this point in time, Jennifer Warnes had been around the music industry for a dozen or so years. She started out singing folk music, in the vein of Joan Baez, and signed with Parrot Records (a subsidiary of London Records) in 1968. She released her first album (I Can Remember Everything) that year and got a gig as part of the cast of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. She released her second album (See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me) in 1969, then switched labels (to Reprise) for her third album (Jennifer) in 1972. She made another label change, to Arista Records, in 1976, and released her breakout album, Jennifer Warnes, that year.
“Right Time of the Night” was not originally part of the Jennifer Warnes album. She had the album in the can, or so she thought, but label head Clive Davis wasn’t convinced that it had a hit single on it. He enlisted second producer Jim Ed Norman (the original producer was Jim Price) to record two new tracks, added them to the album’s running order, and released “Right Time of the Night” as the lead single. As was often the case, Mr. Davis’ instincts were on the mark.
Post-“Right Time of the Night,” Jennifer Warnes had a very solid career. “I’m Dreaming” (the other Jim Ed Norman-produced song added to the Jennifer Warnes album) was a top ten adult contemporary hit later in 1977 and “I Know a Heartache When I See One” was a top twenty mainstream hit in 1979. She had even greater success in the ’80s, duetting on a couple of theme songs to hit movies—”Up Where We Belong” (with Joe Cocker from An Officer and a Gentleman) and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (with Bill Medley from Dirty Dancing).
Among certain cognoscenti, Ms. Warnes has earned a reputation as a singer’s singer. She has been a particularly fine interpreter of the songs of her friend Leonard Cohen; her album of Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat, is a special treat. I’m also a big fan of her 1992 album The Hunter and its 2001 follow-up, The Well. She is an incredibly sensitive singer who always chooses top-notch material.
Jennifer Warnes released her last album (so far) in 2018, titled Another Time, Another Place. She is not a prolific artist but it’s all choice. She’s still active in the music business, aged 78. You can find out more at her web site.
And here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, Ms. Jennifer Warnes singing “Right Time of the Night” live on the June 24, 1977, episode of The Midnight Special. Damn, that’s some fine singing right there.
