Of the Night

This article is about the mash-up song by Bastille. For the song by Corona that inspired this mash-up, see The Rhythm of the Night. For the 2006 EP by Guillemots, see Of the Night (EP).

"Of the Night"
Single by Bastille
from the album All This Bad Blood
B-side"Oblivion" (Live from Capitol Studios)
Released11 October 2013
Recorded2012
Genre
Length3:33
LabelVirgin
Songwriter(s)Benito Benitez, John "Virgo" Garrett III, Thea Austin, Giorgio Spagna, Francesco Bontempi, Annerley Gordon, Peter Glenister, Mike Gaffey
Producer(s)Dan Smith
Bastille singles chronology
"Things We Lost in the Fire"
(2013) 		"Of the Night"
(2013) 		"Pompeii/Waiting All Night"
(2014)
Music video
"Bastille - Of The Night (Official Music Video)" on YouTube

"Of the Night" is a song by British band Bastille, released on 11 October 2013 as the lead single from All This Bad Blood (2013), a reissue of their debut studio album Bad Blood (2013). The song debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and has also charted in several other countries.

The song was covered by Ellie Goulding at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.[1]

Background and release

"Of the Night" is a mash up of two 1990s Eurodance songs, the 1993 hit "The Rhythm of the Night" by Italian act Corona and the 1992 hit "Rhythm Is a Dancer" by German group Snap!.[2][3] The song was first featured on Bastille's mixtape Other People's Heartache, which was released in 2012 as a free download.[4][5]

That's a strange one. It's kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing that we did that kind of got out of hand. It started because Dan [Smith] got really ill when we first got signed, and so to ease his way back into vocal recording we decided to do some mixtapes using old songs that we listened to growing up. These were interesting songs you wouldn't expect us to cover and try to reinvent in a more current kind of way, and then it became one of our biggest songs. Then we started doing it live just because it was a cool song and was fun to play, and audiences started to really kind of dig it. And it all started like a little experiment."

— Will Farquarson, talking about "Of the Night"[6]

"Of the Night" was later used in a promotional trailer for the eighth series of ITV's Dancing on Ice in January 2013.[7][8] It received its first radio play on Huw Stephens' BBC Radio 1 show on 9 October 2013,[9] and was released digitally on 11 October 2013.[10] On 15 November 2013, Of the Night EP was released, featuring three remixes of the song and a live recording of "Oblivion".[11]

Critical reception

Paul Leake of Click Music gave the track five out of five stars, and called it "one of the most inspired covers ever made," adding that it evokes "doe-eyed nostalgia for the purity of 90s' dance music" and "modulates between the sombre heartbreak and quiet intensity."[12]

Digital Spy's Robert Copsey wrote, "On paper, Dan Smith & Co.'s gloomy, atmospheric re-working sounds like career-suicide, and while it certainly isn't that, by opting for such a daring choice it feels like all their hard work at carefully carving out their own niche has come undone."[13]

Commercial performance

While set to become the band's first number one single at the midweek stage, the song debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart, selling 80,257 copies in its first week,[14] only 660 copies less than Lily Allen's version of "Somewhere Only We Know", becoming the narrowest chart race of 2013.[15]

Music video

An official music video promoting the song was released onto YouTube on 9 October 2013.[16] It was directed by Dave Ma (who has previously worked with Foals, Ghostpoet and Delphic), and stars American actor James Russo (Once Upon a Time in America, Django Unchained) as the main protagonist,[17] a Los Angeles police detective who visits several crime scenes, including a woman shot at a motel, a woman overdosed on pills, a man drowned in a pool, a woman asphyxiated in a car trunk, a store clerk shot during a robbery, and a woman in a bathroom with her throat slashed. The corpses sing along with the music (it is heavily implied that the police detective is going crazy, hallucinating seeing the corpses sing, with their voices lip-synced). At one point the band members are seen conversing with the police, then told to face the wall and put their hands on their heads, while an officer searches them.[18] The video ends with the police detective lying on the floor of a bathroom, singing along with the last few lines of the song. The camera pans out to reveal he has slashed his wrists. Mike Wass of Idolator called the video "quite possibly the most depressing video of the year."[3]

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[53] 2× Platinum 140,000‡
Austria (IFPI Austria)[54] Gold 15,000*
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[55] Gold 30,000‡
Germany (BVMI)[56] Gold 150,000^
Italy (FIMI)[57] Gold 15,000‡
Sweden (GLF)[58] Platinum 40,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[59] Platinum 600,000‡
Streaming
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[60] Gold 900,000†

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
† Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region Date Format Label
United Kingdom[19] 11 October 2013 Digital download Virgin Records
Italy[61][62] 25 October 2013 Contemporary hit radio Universal Music
8 November 2013
United Kingdom[11][21] 15 November 2013 Digital download (EP) Virgin Records
18 November 2013 10" vinyl
Germany[20] 4 February 2014 Compact disc
United States 19 April 2014 10" vinyl

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ellie Goulding Covers Bastille's 'Rhythm Of The Night': Surfer Stephen's Viral Video Of The Day". 97.1 AMP RADIO. 22 November 2013. Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  2. ^ "Bastille unveil 'Of the Night' music video". Click Music. 9 October 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  3. ^ a b Wass, Mike (9 October 2013). "Bastille Mash Two '90s Dance Classics On "Of The Night": Watch The Crime-Filled Video". Idolator. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  4. ^ Simpson, Dave (13 March 2013). "Bastille – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Other People's Heartache – Bastille". Last.fm. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  6. ^ Graff, Gary (20 January 2014). "Bastille Working On Sophomore Album In Between Tour Dates". Billboard. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  7. ^ "Listen: Bastille's 'Of the Night' mixes Snap and Corona". Click Music. 9 October 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  8. ^ "ITV1 – Dancing On Ice 2013". tvadmusic.co.uk. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
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  10. ^ "Of the Night - Single by Bastille". iTunes. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  11. ^ a b c "Of the Night – EP by Bastille". iTunes Store (GB). Apple. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  12. ^ Leake, Paul. "Bastille: 'Of the Night' review". Click Music. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  13. ^ Copsey, Robert (15 November 2013). "Bastille: 'Of The Night' - Single review". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  14. ^ Jones, Alan (25 November 2013). "Official Charts Analysis: Robbie LP sells 108k to claim UK's 1,000th Official No.1". Music Week. Intent Media. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
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