Benny Mardones - Into The Night (Guilty Pleasure #32) *DayOne Reacts* 

This song is killer.. what a voice

The 16-year-old girl, her sister, brother and mother were abandoned by their father when he hit it big and ran off with a younger woman. This artist, that cowrote the song, gave each of the kids around $50 a week back to do some small chores for him. When he was up all night with a group writing a song, the 16 year old came into get the dog to take him for a walk. She was in a mini skirt and heels and after she left one of the other guys said wow! Benny mardones said she's just 16 years old, leave her alone.

While the song has stuck like glue to radio playlists, when it first came out, radio stations had some concerns. Benny explains: "When it first was released, R&B stations all over America thought I was black. Then they found out I was white and they dropped the record. White radio was afraid to touch it because they thought it was about me dating a 16-year-old girl at my age. So Polydor Records sent out like 3,000 letters to radio stations across the country explaining what the song was really about. And the song got added and almost instantly started playing all over America."”

The story behind this song is beautiful .

This song is so much better than the video, which unfortunately distracts from the amazing vocals and music production.

Are you kidding me it's a beautiful song!

The way Benny Mardones put it in an interview was that before he had his first hit, he was living in an apartment and he had a pet dog. Since he kept weird hours he hired a neighbor girl to walk his dog. One day Mardones and a friend were working on songs all night, in the morning the girl came to walk the dog before she went to school. Mardones's friend saw her and asked "Who's that, she's cute?" Mardones replied "She's just 16 years old, leave her alone." They thought it was an interesting phrase and it inspired them to write this song.

One of the greatest songs and vocal performances of all time and the disgust is clearly written on your face. Amazing how different generations view this song.

I love that song so much. I still listen to it about everyday. Benny was an awesome person with a voice that was absolutely beautiful.

I heard the “whole” story behind the song. It was a great inspiring story. It wasn’t what I expected. Watch Benny Mardones - Story of Into The Night Tribute Professor of Rock on RU-vid

Lol!! just the look on her face has me cracking up! Can't wait to watch!

f'ing classic, still love this song, such underrated voice

If EVER a really crappy video did a great injustice to a really great song its THIS one! Also, I don't think ANYBODY would let him keep the opening line to the song these days. And he probably wouldn't argue about it either. But other than the unfortunate opening, this really is one hell of a great song, with amazing vocals and stellar production. And believe me, 40+ years ago, none of us ever gave a second thought to the 16 years old thing. We just loved the song.

“Into the Night” is a tune about a “16-years old” girl named Heidi whom Benny Mardones was friends with. In the second verse when he is talking about “watching it all fall apart” and the like, Benny is not speaking in reference to their relationship. Rather he is talking about her unfavorable family situation, where it seems her father deserted the rest of them after he made it big. At some point, Benny actually took care of her and members of her family. Benny had an amazing voice and was very underrated in my opinion. RIP Benny.

Check out Song Facts… it’s days it’s about a real girl he knew. It’s about how the girls father ran out on them and he helped her by paying her to take care of his dog. There’s more info available online with interviews he did over the years about it.

I'm glad you did this song. I always liked it. Good story behind it. Pull up his explanation for it and you won't be bothered so much. :)

I had completely forgotten this song! Benny in interviews said the 16 year old was a girl named Heidi living in the apartments in Spanish Harlem; their relation was completely platonic as Benny looked after her and her family after her father left. Benny would pay her 50 dollars a week to walk his Basset hound. Song Facts has a whole interview on this writing process. Check it out, it'll make you feel much better about the song.

Benny had the Greatest voice !!

Forget about the creepy elements, he does great vocals in this song.

😂 I’m spending all night watching reactions to this song. Makes for a great time everyone. Give it a whirl. The facial expressions are supreme!!

The song is about a father leaving his 16 year old daughter and her siblings. The neighbor helped out the kids. It's a true story...

Back in 1980 we were a little less observant regarding the lyrics of the song. For all we knew Mardones could’ve been an 18 year old with a mature voice. Listening now it seems a little creepy but the Beatles had “I Saw Her Standing There” (she was just 17 you know what I mean) which for some reason never got them in trouble. Not saying it should’ve.

It's not what you think , he loved his neighbors upstairs like family and felt bad they are struggling while very young. Go watch a interview of him explaining how he wrote that song and how it all turn out for all. Sadly he pass away not too long ago and those thinking this song is about being a pervert makes you wonder about themselves .

Not sure why anyone would categorize this a a 'guilty pleasure'. This has been a rock classic for 40 years. I've never seen a reaction like yours to it. Hilarious. When this song was all over radio, no one bothered to analyze the lyrics to that extent. Hmmm...maybe we should have.

This song is a beautifully constructed masterpiece.

Love this song. what a voice, RIP Benny.

Love the look on your face!! Lol!!! It's a little creepy eh? He looks 48. The look on your face was priceless, considering he looked older than her dad in the doorway.!! Lol

Was a big Top 40 hit. One of my favorite undying love songs. He passed away several months ago.

Loved the song growing up- never paid attention or really watched the video so... and I guess as a teen, I just liked the sound and didn’t pay much attention to the first line and didn’t know how old he was/ looked🤭. 💝✌️✨👍

It's best to just ignore that first line. The rest is an amazing song. I know Benny explained a different intention of the song, but the video sure doesnt help his explanation.

Benny Mardones has told so many different stories about this song that it is hard to know what is fact or fiction. The song is a classic though.

❤The song is fantastic! Vocals are out of this world. Please read the background before you judge Benny. He was a compassionate man who saved a family. With the opening line, "She's just 16 years old, leave her alone, they said," we understand if you think this song sounds a little statutory. Benny Mardones told Songfacts that the 16-year-old girl he's singing about was named Heidi, and she lived in his apartment in Spanish Harlem. Their relationship was purely platonic, however, as Benny looked after Heidi and her family after her father left. Benny would pay her $50 a week to walk his basset hound, Zanky. Mardones wrote this song with Robert Tepper, who would later write the song "No Easy Way Out" for the movie Rocky IV. Benny told Songfacts: "One night Robert Tepper and I were up writing songs. It was about a week before we were leaving for Miami to cut the first big album, which was Never Run, Never Hide. We thought that we already had the hit song, so did Polydor Records. It was a song called 'Might Have Been Love.' But at the last minute we're sitting there one night at my apartment trying to write. Bobby kept playing the chord changes and we tried 18 melodies and 30 kinds of lyrics and all of a sudden the key in the door turned and I said, 'Oh my God, it's daylight.' Because we liked to keep the blinds down. And in she walks, 16 years old, dressed for school in a miniskirt, little stacked heels, adorable, 16-going-on-21. She said, 'You've been up all night?' and of course it was obvious. I said, 'Yeah, we have.' She says, 'Okay, come on, Zanky,' and she walks the dog out. When she leaves and goes out the door, my partner goes, 'Oh, my God.' I said, 'Hey, Bob. She's just 16 years old, leave her alone.' And literally five minutes later I said, 'Play that lick again, Bobby.' So he played the lick and I went (singing), 'she's just 16 years old, leave her alone, they say.' Then I thought about her dad and what he had done, and that's where I got (singing), 'Separated by fools who don't know what love is yet.' The chorus was, 'you're too young for me, but if I could fly, I'd pick you up and take you into the night and show you love like you've never seen.' Then the verse 'It's like having it all and letting it show. It's like having a dream where nobody has a heart. It's like having it all and watching it fall apart.' Because his success was not the family's success; it was just his. 'I can't measure my love there's nothing compared to it' - it was all about the abandonment of this family and this 16-year-old girl."

A perfectly reasonable reaction. The first line probably cost him some fame.

RIP Benny. Most people don’t know that the song is about abandonment and aiding a family that was down on their luck. Once you watch his interview on Professor of Rock, you’ll appreciate the song and Benny’s genius in writing this song. Great song!!

So maybe you should listen to songs without the videos if you can't get past nonsense. Very disappointed in that review.

This is definitely a guilty pleasure song R.I.P Benny

This song came out when I was a teenager. Even though it's a great tune, it's still creepy af!

It could be from the perspective of an 18 or 19-year-old guy. A lot of girls in the 60s and 70s got married at 13 and 14, it was a different time, now they go off to hedonistic colleges. It's just a fact, a lot of 18-20-year-old guys date 16 and 17-year-old girls, the average girl used to marry guys about 10 years older than them. It is what it is. Everyone tries to tag this song because the writer is older, but writers have an artistic license, they can be writing from an 18-year-old guy's perspective about a 16 ear old girl he is n love with and papa makes him stop seeing the girl. I have heard enough lewd vulgar rap songs that this kind of song is nothing. So, there that is,

Wow...me alegra escuchar esta canción, los primos de Benny en Chile, a todos les gustaba tocar canciones, su Tío Jaime Mardones y su tía Laura eran grandes personas, y escuché muchas canciones de Benny mientras trabajaba en casa de su familia aquí en Chile 😊😊

Back then there seemed to be less concern about older men with much younger women; it seemed young women were more mature then and definitely before that period too ... benny was 34 when he appeared in that video and the actress was probably at least 18. Had the boy been played by a 20-something actor the visual wd hv likely been less jarring today and even then ... but i would have loved to perform with that gifted man. When i watch interviews particularly as he aged he seemed so humble and kind and grateful for those who supported his career. For what it’s worth, his real life wives were his contemporaries.

I was in my late teens when this came out and it made perfect sense to me ... I didn't have Ben's vocals but I could imagine the rest ... besides it's still a good little top-40 rocker.

Video creepy. Song great.

Bread - Baby I'm a want you , Del Shannon - Runnaway, Dion Runaround Sue , Jim Croce I have to say I love you in a song , Simon & Garfunkel -The Boxer , Jim Capaldi I am the morning DJ

He was telling his friend to leave his neighborhood girl alone because she was only 16 years old. He was a great singer and just recently passed away.

Yep when I was a young man I was concerned about that first line also even though I like the song. . it was actually a hit two or three times. it was not until years later that I heard the story of exactly what had transpired to bring this song into existence and then it all made some sense to me. Rest in peace Benny

Those eye rolls are priceless. 😂 Honestly it’s an innocent song. The girl was his neighbour, her father did a runner and left the family . Benny would ask her to run errands and pay her to help out.

I hope you took the time to read the comments on his video. Very funny!

The short of it is the lyrics are not of innocents being taken but the promise of that innocents being left behind by a dead beat dad who skipped out on the family . Once you come to understand the complete story which really happened it’s gut wrenching . Benny was a true performer , RIP , Roy Orbison had great admiration for his ability to bring such a story, he has an interview on RU-vid which all can enjoy .

Benny Mardones or ABBA (Dancing Queen), says, "You are the dancing queen Young and sweet Only seventeen Dancing queen," reminiscing songs, a reflection song, Puppy Love One's First Love, a standard ballad. This is not a video, Benny Mardones; it is a promo video pre-MTV done on the cheap, maybe for executives or TV specials. Like the ABBA promo video "Dancing Queen" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xFrGuyw1V8s.html

It was a girl that he liked, and he was much older, but in an interview, he told someone that it was a friend of his who was in love with a girl that was too young… So Benny would probably get arrested today with this song 😳

Don't jump to conclusions!

So crazy I was searching this song and your reaction cane up!

The first verse is talking about feelings when we all have felt as a teenager. Nothing illicit to be misinterpreted. Remember this song was made back 8n the early 70's.

More than 42 tears ago my precious wife and I were married and we're still together and going strong. She was still 16 at the time and I was 20 and NO, she wasn't pregnant. At 16 she was far more "grown-up" than I was. It's not all about the age of the bride and groom, but how much they love and treasure one another! She's the best thing that ever happened to me. Just saying!

I know it's very creepy but he described the song and the girl in a interview (:. He stated he saw her in a apartment building while he was in his own apartment room with some of his band members and he sees her probably not interested but they saw him looking at her and then the line was born (:. She just sixteen years old leave her alone they say (:. He never really had any intention too persue her in anyway (:. But most of the lines of the song occured very accidently (:. According too him and his band they were sort of stomped or at a musical mind block (:. Until all those events occurred and the song came together (:. Well atleast that's how he described in a interview of how the song happened (:. If there was another story too it he didn't mentioned it (:. Anyway it was hit for him and is still regarded as one greats in love music history (:

You're not wrong. I've always liked the song for the vocals. But the message is creepy. May have been inspired by his dog walker but the song is clearly not about a platonic relationship.

Back then i did not pay attention to the lyrics and I had not seen the video. In those days when you were young, you had no desire of staying home, you had to be on the move, so radio was it. All I cared about was the powerhouse voice Benny had. May he RIP.

Memories of my teen years!

The older I get the creepier this video gets.

This was such a different time. I had an older man in his 30s that I had the biggest crush on. I was 16. We'd even talk on the phone. He made no secret that he was drawn to me. I even rode in the car with him. Looking back I was not ever a risk taking teen but he was my exception. He never made a move. Not even a kiss but he would sing this song to me. Now as I am older and have my daughters and my grandchildren it's a different story but for many of us at this time this was entirely normal. It cannot be judged by today's standards, thankfully we have evolved but I will personally always love this song.

Love this song what a story behind this song Benny was a Ace

I feel that Benny, really DID have the **Hots**For Her ‼️March 2024..💌💌💌

I think he’s singing “ she’s just 60 years old “ changes the whole dynamics now doesn’t it..😂

Lmfao! Been waiting for this.

Look at the interview that the professor of rock had with him before he died and he explained the true meaning of the song. Once you heard it, the song takes a completely different meaning.

If I'm not mistaken, in the video I believe Benny Mardones is supposed to be 17 years old... X3 :)

This song came out in 1980. I still have it. If he came to my door looking for my minor daughter, he'd be picking his self up instead. LOLOLOL

Sadly your letting the lyrics cloud the actual vocals of this man powerful voice . Great song great love store and you have to remember the time this song first came out . People are to quick to judge today . Got to have an open mind to music in all aspects not a narrow mind. Don’t let the first verse ruin this beautiful classic.

These millenials are so literal. They lack the ability to see the lyrics as just a song. So glad I grew up in the 70s & 80s.

Yes you are wrong, he’s referring to a 16 year girl and her little brother that lived in the same apartment as he did and they had nothing, so he would give them odd jobs to make money like walk his dog or something like that so he wanted to take them away from that life

Look at the song and not the video. In the song, there's no mention of how old he is, so, for all we know, it could be a twenty year old. Just enjoy it for the romance of it is how I view it and forget the video.

definitely nothing wrong with this video. you have to remember this was made in the '80s and in the '80s this was perfectly normal. just ask all of your mom's how old was she when she had her first kid and you will see that she was 16 years old or younger! ? nothing weird about this video whatsoever

This was released two different times and second time went to number one

The song isn't about him dating the girl. The girl had a sister and brother their dad ran off from the family with a 24 year old. The kids showed up at his door crying told him what happened he told them everything would be alright. He didn't know how he would make it better so Benny paid each kid to come by and do chores so they would have money for school and stuff. One night after working all night the 16 year old entered his apartment to walk his dog which was her chore she noticed Benny and his friends had been up all night when she was leaving the apartment his friend said something about her being pretty Benny replied hey man she is only 16 leave her alone.

Our grandmothers married at that age and younger.. he said show you love not sex.. I guarantee you 16 year olds today already doing that with multiple partners.. back then ppl actually fell in love and married and stayed together..

Let's not feign outrage over the situational love of the man-girl love these have found themselves in..Shakespeare once simply but brilliantly stated "THE HEART KNOWS WHAT THE HEART THE HEART WANTS' After all if not for relationships such as these back in the early part of the 20th century many of us wouldn't be here to feign outrage.

Yeah, when you first hear this song and even looking at the lyrics it seems a bit off till you hear the story that inspired it. Than you understand everything more. The video made for it is the same way. You initially see a grown man approaching what looks to be a young teenage girl. Than sits and singing to her. The song is basically saying I see u going through this abuse and neglect and would like to be able to help take u out of that and give u a better life that u deserve. He wrote it about a young girl and her young brother who lived in Benny’s apartment building. He saw them crying asked what happened saying that their dad abandoned their mom and the family. He said he’d pay them to do odd jobs for him. Which helped them support the family. They both later went off and ended up living much better lives.

This song is about abandonment. Not sick thoughts about the girl.

I can remember when I was in high school, all the girls dated guys in their 20's

Your facial expression while you were watching and listening to this had me literally laughing out loud. I know, it's weird but he said it has a totally different meaning. Hard to believe.

When this song came out,Ii Was14 years old I loved it, but my Mom hated it I just wanted to be loved by Benny!

man one of my faves!!!

At 16 in the 80's::we dated older men.

Best reaction and THANK YOU. My sentiments exactly. Mardones was born 11/9/1946!!!!!! Song was released June 1980, so he was 33 years old, writing this about a 16 year old. Very lucky man it was MY daughter!!!!

This song doesn’t mean what you are thinking.

Benny Mardones explains the song and the meaning behind it.

Love this song. It is magnificent. I was 16 when I met my one and only. He was 26. We had 41 years together. It was not wrong or creepy.

Hi look up the meaning for this song and you will understand it.

I listen to the song multiple times after a co-worker played it. Then I really listen to the lyrics. I realize he was singing to a sixteen-year-old girl and I was like wait,what!!! I don't agree with the premise however it's still a gorgeous song.

Lol! Her look when they first show the young girl….! 😂

You're not wrong. He did it because it was edgy on purpose. A few people have already mentioned it, but he was a friend of a family he helped out, and one of their daughters (who he had no feelings for) came over to walk the dog, after she left one of his friends helping him write was more or less like "Dayyyyyummmmm." And Benny Mardones was actually the one who said "She's just 16 years old, leave her alone." However, his character did kiss the "teen" on the video. As a dude, I can tell you with 100% positivity what happened, and it's one of three things: 1) He's a liar and a pedo (I kinda doubt it) 2) Right after he said that, he left the part out where his friend started making jokes (probably of the lewd variety) about it immediately after he said that, and I bet that's what actually turned into the song. Being jokingly overdramatic about being a pedophile. I personally find the song hilarious in that context. 3) Same as two, but rather than a joke, just random artsy bullshit to try to be edgy. But I like my theory better, and it sounds truer.

You have a problem with the first line because you're young and you see the world as it is today. This was released in 1980. Generations ago. We were a lot more mature then than this generation is today. I joined the US military in 1981 at the age of 17. I was 16 when this song was released and we were not kids. The girls I was with then were not children. It was very common for the high school juniors and seniors to be dating college age guys back then. My grandmother was married at 16. It was a different time. What this song represents to me is what I experienced IRL when I was in high school. There was a cheerleader who was really into me and I really liked her, but her dad refused to let her have a boyfriend or even let her go on a date un-escorted. If you'll notice in the video, Benny puts her on a magic carpet on the floor and not the bed, she's modestly dressed and at the end he kisses her. That's all there is to that.

Pronounce as Mar doe ness. Written by Benny + Robert Tepper. They used to be friends. Good song! 😃 Benny had a voice like Daryl Hall + a promising upswing in his career. But the drinking caused a riff between him + other singers. He could have sang + written more hits. Drinking also shortened his life. He died largely forgotten. Tragic. RIP Benny, last year.

Benny out of no where with a bomb and then back into obscurity. Great tune, sans the lyrics, which honestly, I never listened to. But that's life in the paranoid 2020s

I can't measure my love there's nothing to compare it tooo. ( the hardest line in the whole song )

🤔🤨😐😁Love your reaction to this😂🤣😂

Benny is 33 in the video. The video would never be made today and record execs would have pushed back on 16 years old openining line. Hey she could be 18 or 20! Back in the early days of video, songs tened to be acted out according to the lyrics. The fact that the video only recently resurfaced in it entirety was a sure way of knowing some back peddling needed to be done 😅

It's not at all what we both used to think. Heidi was a 16 year old girl Benny helped when he lived in East Harlem. Her dad walked away and left the family. This was purely Platonic.... All was and he did, help her entire family.

It shows he wasn't allowed to see her. He didn't end up with her. It was his dream when he was with her.

Angela, Benny's last name is pronounced, "Mar-doh-ness" (RIP). And Angela, please, don't get caught up in the cancel culture. This goes for ANYBODY who reads this ... this is VERY important, especially in these days of "cancel culture" ... This is a BEAUTIFUL song, so please, don't sully it's meaning with your assumptions and prejudice, and don't let it affect your ability to like it, because it's was never intended the way you are thinking. In fact, if you read up on the REASON Benny wrote the song, you'll see that the video may SEEM misleading, but it has nothing to do with sex. It was about a “16-years old” girl named Heidi whom Benny Mardones was friends with. She lived next door to him, had been very mistreated and lived around a very dysfunctional family life. He never had ANY relationship with her, and she still cried throughout her life, every time she heard it. In the song, when he's talking about “watching it all fall apart”, Benny's not speaking about their relationship. He's singing about her unfavorable family situation. Her father deserted the rest of them after he made it big, and at some point, Benny actually took care of her and members of her family. The song was however, co-written by Benny and another writer who, HAD met Heidi, but obviously didn't have the same type of relationship with her, so some of the words are a bit stronger and steamier than Benny had originally intended. You're big people now, so you should be able to be grown up about it and see past that. Why do we condemn innocent things, yet let pedophiles go free for decades ??? It's because they can deflect your attention to things like this. Still, even if you go with what you think it was about, in those days, it was NOT considered wrong by everyone for a 16 year old to date someone 18, 19, 20, etc. I know of a 32 year old game warden in Pennsylvania who married a 16 year old girl. Her parents, of course, like older brothers, never liked it when their daughters or sisters started to date ANYONE and were usually VERY protective. However, it was NOT considered wrong by most in that time period, so you have to stop judging something depicted back then, with "today's eyes". I mean, the song was 1 of the very few songs that hit #1 ... TWICE (1980 and 1989), which is evidence that people back then, not ONLY didn't see it as wrong, but they liked it so much, they bought enough copies in both years to reach #1. FYI, It is still legal for girls (and boys) to marry young. In fact, here is the breakdown of the MINIMUM age for marriage in the United States: Minimum Age (# of States for each category): No Minimum: 14 14 : 2 15 : 5 16: 21 17: 7 18/older: 1 So, only 1 state in the entire United States requires a person to be 18 or older to get married. I think that means that, if she was in any one of 42 states, 16 would be perfectly fine to be dating an older man. Now, in order to have sex though, in most of these same states, the minor would have to be married first ... but isn't that the way it's supposed to be anyway (married BEFORE sex) ??? One other thing you might think about, back in the 1950's through the 1990's, it was common for older writers to write the songs that younger people listened to, because that's where the money was being made ... younger people. So, they wrote songs they THOUGHT represented things that might be going through the minds of the kids that were listening (and buying the records). Now, it sounds creepy, because we are trying to cancel everything and everybody. But that's just wrong. There's a beautiful song by Lionel Richie called, Hello, and people are freaking out about it because it involves a teacher, in a college/art school type environment, who loves one of his students ... a blind girl, and even though he only professes his love, he never says anything to her. By the end of the video, she approaches him (well, has another student go fetch him) and reveals her love for him. There is nothing wrong with that story either, but people want somebody to sacrifice and burn at the stake. We have got to stop judging history by today's standards/eyes. There's a WHOLE LOT of history we are going to have to cancel if we don't start using our brains for something more important than cancelling each other out. Try this, imagine you never saw the video ... would you still think there was something wrong with it ??? No, you've even admitted you like his voice, the music , his style and even said that the message is beautiful. Let's run with that, okay ??? This IS why some people ignore the video when reacting, because it distracts from the actual thing you are judging ...the music.