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Benny Mardones, 'Into the Night' Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 73
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/9402923/benny-mardones-into-the-night-dead-73
6/29/2020 by Andrew Unterberger
Benny Mardones (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Benny Mardones, rock and soul singer-songwriter behind the '80s smash and radio perennial "Into the Night," died today at his home in Menifee, California. His passing was confirmed to Billboard by longtime friend and record producer Joel Diamond, resulting from complications following a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73.
Mardones was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Savage, Maryland, joining the Navy out of high school to serve in the Vietnam War. Following his discharge, he moved to New York to become a songwriter, where he was enlisted by Diamond to be a staff songwriter for Mercury Records, penning material for stars like Brenda Lee and Tommy James. Various other credits followed, and in the late '70s Mardones also became a performing artist, opening for folk-rocker Richie Havens on tour in 1977 and releasing debut album Thank God For Girls the year after.
Despite impressive pedigree, including guitar work from David Bowie sideman Mick Ronson and production from Rolling Stones go-to collaborator Andrew Loog Oldham, the album failed to produce a hit. But Mardones' next effort, 1980's Never Run, Never Hide, spawned what would quickly become his signature song: the mega-ballad "Into the Night."
Co-penned with Robert Tepper (later a hitmaker on his own with Rocky IV anthem "No Easy Way Out" ), "Into the Night" was a soaring love song with an absolute wallop of a chorus. 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. (The first line was supposedly meant as a rejoinder to his co-writer, who got a little leery when meeting her for the first time. )
</snip>
6/29/2020 by Andrew Unterberger
Benny Mardones (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Benny Mardones, rock and soul singer-songwriter behind the '80s smash and radio perennial "Into the Night," died today at his home in Menifee, California. His passing was confirmed to Billboard by longtime friend and record producer Joel Diamond, resulting from complications following a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73.
Mardones was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Savage, Maryland, joining the Navy out of high school to serve in the Vietnam War. Following his discharge, he moved to New York to become a songwriter, where he was enlisted by Diamond to be a staff songwriter for Mercury Records, penning material for stars like Brenda Lee and Tommy James. Various other credits followed, and in the late '70s Mardones also became a performing artist, opening for folk-rocker Richie Havens on tour in 1977 and releasing debut album Thank God For Girls the year after.
Despite impressive pedigree, including guitar work from David Bowie sideman Mick Ronson and production from Rolling Stones go-to collaborator Andrew Loog Oldham, the album failed to produce a hit. But Mardones' next effort, 1980's Never Run, Never Hide, spawned what would quickly become his signature song: the mega-ballad "Into the Night."
Co-penned with Robert Tepper (later a hitmaker on his own with Rocky IV anthem "No Easy Way Out" ), "Into the Night" was a soaring love song with an absolute wallop of a chorus. 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. (The first line was supposedly meant as a rejoinder to his co-writer, who got a little leery when meeting her for the first time. )
</snip>
Cross gently, Benny.
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Nothing creepy about the song and the record label was in control of the video production.
[link:
[link:https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/benny-mardones|]
I've been a huge fan of Benny's since the late 1970s early 1980s and met him in person in 1997.
