TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT (GONNA BE ALRIGHT)
“Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” is a song by Rod Stewart, recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama for his 1976 album A Night on the Town. The song became his second US chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100. It made its debut at number 81 on October 2, 1976 and rose quickly, climbing from number eight to the top of the chart on November 13, 1976, and remained on top for eight consecutive weeks until January 8, 1977. It was the longest stay of any song during 1976, as well as the longest stay at number one for Rod Stewart in his entire recording career. It was the number 1 song on Billboard’s 1977 year-end chart. As of 2015, it is the seventeenth most popular song in the history of the chart. (More from Wikipedia)
Amanda Jones’ sole album Amanda Jones came out on Bomp! Records in 1996, with the five songs being a delight from end to end. The opening cut is “The First Time”, about a girl bringing a boy home to her place. With lyrics like “It’s my first time / Please be kind / It’s my first time / Don’t hurt me” interspersed with “oh . . . oh oh oh . . .”, the song focuses more on the angst rather than the sexiness of the coming-of-age event; unlike the way that, say, Rod Stewart did in his hit song “Tonight’s the Night”. And in a nice twist, it turns out that the boy admits with tears in his eyes that it is also his “first time”.
(December 2015)
