I first heard this song in the eighties when I bought the Tupelo Honey album. Wild Night and the title track caught my attention immediately. This song is very radio-friendly and so is the album to a large extent. It was released in 1971 and peaked at #28 on the Billboard 100 and #20 in Canada.
John Mellencamp also released a version in 1994 and the song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100. John did a great job but this is my go-to version. Van’s voice…you can’t beat it. If my fairy God Mother said to me…Max, you can have any voice you want…who will it be? It would be this man’s voice.
Ted Templeman, who would later produce another Van Halen, produced the Tupelo Honey album with Morrison. Musicians to perform on this track include Ronnie Montrose on electric guitar, John McFee on pedal steel guitar, Jack Schroer on saxophone, and Luis Gasca on trumpet.
I have always liked this album a lot. I have recommended some people to this album because it is very accessible compared to say…Astral Weeks. I love Astral Weeks by the way and I think it probably is his best album but it’s not as accessible when you first listen to it…not to me anyway. Van cleaned out a lot of leftover songs when he made this album but it is very enjoyable. The title track may be his finest song.
Van Morrison: “I wasn’t very happy with Tupelo Honey, it consisted of songs that were left over from before and that they’d finally gotten around to using. It wasn’t really fresh. It was a whole bunch of songs that had been hanging around for awhile. I was really trying to make a country and western album.”
Wild Night
As you brush your shoes
Stand before the mirror
And you comb your hair
Grab your coat and hat
And you walk, wet streets
Tryin’ to remember
All the wild night breezes
In your mem’ry ever
And ev’rything looks so complete
When you’re walkin’ out on the street
And the wind catches your feet
Sends you flyin’, cryin’
Ooo-woo-wee!
Wild night is calling, alright
Oooo-ooo-wee!
Wild night is calling
And all the girls walk by
Dressed up for each other
And the boys do the boogie-woogie
On the corner of the street
And the people, passin’ by
Stare in wild wonder
And the inside juke-box
Roars out just like thunder
And ev’rything looks so complete
When you walk out on the street
And the wind catches your feet
And sends you flyin’, cryin’
Woo-woo-wee!
Wild night is calling
Alright
Ooo-ooo-wee!
Wild night is calling, alright
The wild night is calling
The wild night is calling
Come on out and dance
Whoa, come on out and make romance
Yes, indeed
Come on out and dance
Come on out, make romance
[Instrumental & horn solo]
The wild night is calling, alright
The wild night is calling
Come on out an dance
Yeah, come on out ‘n make romance
Come on out and dance, alright
Come on out, n’ make romance.
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You’re right on the money with this one. One of my all-time favorites. Great info about Ronnie Montrose!
Yea I didn’t know he played on this either… I love this song and the album it’s on.
so good
Van Morrison was really good at making those place markers in songs that never reflect in the lyrics. He has such a great stage presence, and I love his singing “hut” and “do, do, do, do, do.”
He does…even in Brown Eyed Girl he does it.
Yes, he was so good at that. He makes a studio song sound like an ad hoc live cut. There’s a bit on his wonderful cover of Raglan Road where he suddenly whispers “listen” and I get emotional tingles. Similarly, when he whoops with unexpected joy in the middle of And The Healing Has Begun. How such an intrinsically miserable man can have so much soul is one of the world’s great unexplained phenomena.
Paul, in the eighties I traded an Eric Clapton book I had to a friend who had a biography of Van Morrison…that was hard to get. You are right…he was miserable in a lot of ways but was that an act to journalists? I don’t know….he loved Dylan and what he did to the press…but having an interview and suddenly just getting up and walking out….it makes you wonder….whatever it was…it worked!
A great quote is that you can still really like his music despite having met him.
Do I think it was an act? No.
Despite that I love him dearly.
I think some of it was but no not all… other artists…like Robertson did say he was “different” lol.
One of his best, as is the title track from that album. Van wasn’t happy with it…wasn’t much he was happy with, was there?
No he wasn’t at least at what he told the papers. This album also was more of my introduction to his days after Brown Eyed Girl. It’s a good album to introduce him to someone because it has a radio friendly sound…it’s NOT his best at all…but for a newby to Van…it’s greaet.
I do like the ‘Moondance’ album.
I do also…that one and this one are radio friendly.
I remember this one from somewhere down in the vaults, it is a showcase of Vans style.
It is a good showcase of his style…this one and Caravan I always thought brought out a lot of his best features.
Check out the live version of Caravan on It’s Too Late To Stop Now – Van Heaven.
I had that album years ago…when I think of Caravan I think of the big leg kicks he did on The Last Waltz…but I’m going to listen to the version you mentioned now again.
That violin solo – oh man!
I’m listening to it now! Well I’m watching it now.
A friend of mine went into a pub one quiet midweek afternoon about thirty years ago. Just a few people were in there. After buying his drink and settling down to read his book, he realised that at a table in the far corner was Paul Carrack (of Ace, Mike & the Mechanics) and no other than Van Morrison. Although a big fan, he didn’t bother The Man, he was just happy to bathe in his holy light, so to speak.
A nice little tale to tell, I think.
Oh that is really cool! Yea he is someone I would not approach…but like your friend…I would just enjoy the moment. I saw Peter Frampton in the Nashville Airport a few years ago…never realized how short he is…but no I didn’t bother him. I did shake John Kay’s hand…but again I kept it brief.
I’m sure I told you before – I passed Paul Weller on London’s Oxford Street once. I gave him a tiny, almost imperceptible nod to show my recognition/acknowledgement. He gave me a tiny nod back and we passed like ships in the night.
You might have but it’s worth hearing again! I thought of you the other night while I was watching Life On Mars…I must have seen that series 8 or 9 times. The reason I thought of you is because of when you told me you saw Philip Glenister.
Actually, my wife Suzie saw him properly (I was looking the other way) and she kept nudging me as he waked past.
Good for Suzie…he is a really good actor and did a fantastic job in that role. To me…Gene Hunt is up there with Archie Bunker and other iconic characters.
Great song! I’m fairly certain in my case it was the other way around: I first heard John Mellencamp’s terrific cover before I listened to the original. For many years, the only Van Morrison solo music I knew was “Moondance,” which I think remains my favorite among his solo albums I’ve heard to date.
and….Brown Eyed Girl! I’m sure you knew that one. Although Christian…I never heard it or remembered that song until I was 18 in 1985. When I did it kicked off a domino effect…I started to buy Them albums and then his solo albums.
A fantastic cover of Brown Eyed Girl is by Ian Matthews (of Matthews Southern Comfort fame). It is riffy and rocking. I really like it.
I’m listening to it now….a really good cover of that song. I like the backups also…they make it sound so full/big.
Yep, sure, I had known “Brown Eyed Girl” and a handful of other Van Morrison and Them songs. But in terms of entire albums “Moondance” was the only one for many years. Eventually, I listened to “Astral Weeks”, “Tupelo Honey” and some others.
Oh yea…with albums…I didn’t know one until I started to get them. I bought Tupelo Honey first out of his solo career…didnt’ know what was on it but after that I went to Astral Weeks and kept going.
Love this song Max, Van is truly sublime.
Thanks Randy
First there was Van, then there was Bruce and they both did the “boogie woogie” and sent CB flying. Like I said, why I tune in.
How could you not feel good listening to this… thanks man
Van one ups Bruce in that he blows the sax. On the live version you can hear Morrison near the end doing some Jackie Wilson traits. The last minute.
I’ll take a listen to that… I would imagine it’s on Too Late To Stop Now… I haven’t heard the album in years… time for another listen.
At about the 3 minute mark on the video you posted he does Jackie’s Hup, hup” thing and a few other sounds. We know he was a huge Wilson guy.
Yep! I’m an idiot…didn’t think about the live version I actually posted!
I am not a great Van Fan, but this tune is one I love by him.
I need to find the clip of when Bob Rock worked with him… its a funny story especially as Rock tells it like it is…
I can only imagine with Van…he is an odd dude! I laugh when I hear when he was in the band THEM…their bus broke down and sent him out to get someone…he just went to a hotel and slept…didn’t tell a soul lol.
Another amazing song you have shed light on which I’d forgotten about or may have heard just a few times, yet decades ago. It could well have been just the Mellencamp version I’d heard. My list of new songs to add are growing longer than my arm. Thanks Max.
I’m kind of Van’s side about the album as a whole but this and the title track are terrific. Into the Music and St Dominic’s Preview are my two favourite Van records.
The only song I simply do not like on it is I Wanna Roo You…. but no it’s not his best album.
Yeah, when I look at the tracklist the rest is pretty good.
It amuses me to read that you first heard “Wild Night” in the 80s, when I’m so old that I remember it from when it was a hit. I was 17 when it was released in September 1971, and it’s one of my favorite songs by Morrison.
I also didn’t hear Brown Eyed Girl until the 80s…with that one I dont’ know how I escaped it.
I’ve heard “Brown Eyed Girl” so much, I can no longer bear listening to it.
It’s my Stairway to Heaven lol… I never get tired of it. Plus it’s a fun song to play.