Previously…
- Detroit City
- Take Me from This Garden of Evil
- Pump it up
- There stands the glass
- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
- My Generation and Desolation Row
- Dirty Life and Times
- “Old Violin” by Johnny Paycheck
- Cheaper to Keep Her
By Tony Attwood
Prelude: I tried at first to write a set of reviews of Dylan’s “Philosophy” book but I found I really couldn’t do it – I simply couldn’t find a way to write about the points raised by Dylan, and all I could do was say “read the book and make of it what you will.”
So I then started to ask if anyone else would like to try, but no one came forth. (And to be clear I mean, come forth by reviewing what Dylan says about the songs, not primarily writing about their own thoughts on Dylan’s music).
Thus I am now working my way not through what Dylan wrote, but through the songs he chose, and this one is “Strangers in the Night” which was released in mid-1966 under the title “Beddy Bye” as part of the score for the film “A man could get killed”.
Should you wish to go exploring you can hear the musical score of the film here… it comes in just after the two-minute mark.
But seemingly almost immediately, the potential of the instrumental version of the song was realised, and English lyrics were added by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder with Sinatra rushing out a recording within a month or so. It was a number 1 hit in both the USA and the UK, and it was then also placed on an album which bore the song title, and became Sinatra’s best-selling record of all time. It also won awards for the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
And it that were not enough, Grammy also gave it awards for “Best arrangement” the following year. As a result, people who don’t particularly feel attracted to Sinatra or his songs, still most probably know “Stranger in the Night,” just as people who don’t really know much about Dylan and profess not to like or even know his work probably know “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Sinatra’s recording of the song reached No. 1 on all the charts it could qualify for in both the USA and UK (Hot 100, Top 40, East Listening, Singles, etc etc. The album quickly followed and it was Sinatra’s most successful album in terms of sales and money-making.
And, listening to it, I would argue that if ever there was a song that was the opposite of Dylan’s work, surely this is it. The story such as it is, is that the couple have a dance and fall in love. The song suddenly changes key just by jumping from one key to another – there is no real progression or anything else. It all comes down to those three notes that occur the first two bars for the lyrics “Strangers in the night, exchanging glances.”
Overall the song contains just 121 words, but it seems to me (and of course this is just a reflection of my age and my location) everyone I know, even if they have no interest in music, knows the song and can make a stab at singing the first line. And would probably say “Frank Sinatra” in answer to “who recorded it?”
Perhaps it is the simplicity that makes the song work. For there is indeed nothing in the lyrics other than the concept that two lonely people met, fell in love, while dancing together, and then as the song concludes, “It turned out so right, For strangers in the night”. They are lovers forevermore.
It is, I suppose, the ultimate idealistic dream – the dream of everyone who is lonely that somehow, without making any effort or doing anything special, the right person will be met and the two will fall in love.
The reality, that people who actually are not out doing much except going to a dance on their own could meet another person in exactly the same position and find the two of them are destined to love each other forever, is unlikely. Maybe I have just got the wrong friends, and maybe I have just got the wrong personality, but in my experience, it doesn’t actually work out like that. But then perhaps that is why the song is so eternally popular. It is all so utterly unlikely. Like winning the lottery (although actually my next door neighbours did that, so it is possible!)
So it is a pretend song. It could happen, but the odds are against it. And indeed that is the point that Dylan raised four years previously when writing “Blowing in the Wind” wherein he suggested we really don’t know how long it will take for anything to happen. Or one could say Dylan had already faced the question on the same album when he sang
I once loved a woman, a child, I'm toldI give her my heart but she wanted my soul But don't think twice, it's all right
For Dylan, the sort of love that Sinartra “croons” (I think that is the word) about, is the fantasy that so many love-lorn people have, desperately sad either because they can’t find someone to love, or else their love is unrequited. But let’s be fair – Bob did write the perfect love song: “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” – it was written in 1965 as a tribute to his future wife, Sara Lownds.
Dylan’s song however, was about the love affair that was established; the Sinatra song is about meeting the perfect lover by chance – so the events are different, but the core concept is the same. Meet the person, fall in love, hopefully forever more. I never managed it; I wish I had.
Although it seems Bob maybe got a bit fed up wiht the thoughts that the song raised. Here is Bob’s feelings on the issue from the last year in which he ventured into the song
Bob clearly did cherish the song, however, for he played the song 365 times between 1965 and 2012, and as far as I am concerned, he could bring it back again any time he wishes.
Here’s another version – this from 2008.
What those two versions of the same song tell me is just how many ways love can be portrayed in song. For me, it is not a case of saying one is better than the other, but rather a case of revelling in the multi-featured layers of the concept of and the possibilities in the song. Bob is to some degree, having a bit of fun in this second recording, I feel sure – but then surely that is part of what love is about.
Both recordings of course, come from The Never Ending Tour series on this site – and there is a;waus a link to the series at the top of the page. And just in case you wanted something more in keeping with the song as it started – this recording is coming from 1988. And there are plenty more in the series.