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"Shadows of the Night"
"Shadows of the Night"
	Standard picture sleeve
Single by Pat Benatar
from the album Get Nervous
B-side	"The Victim"
Released	September 18, 1982
Recorded	June 18, 1982
Genre	Hard rock
Length	4:20 (album version); 3:43 (single edit)
Label	Chrysalis
Songwriter(s)	David Leigh Byron, Rachel Sweet
Producer(s)	Peter Coleman, Neil Giraldo
Pat Benatar singles chronology
Music video
	"Shadows of the Night" on YouTube

"Shadows of the Night" is a song composed by D.L. Byron explicitly for the 1980 film Times Square,^[1] which tells the story of two young runaways in New York City. The song did not make it into the movie and Byron's own record label rejected it, claiming the song "wasn't commercial enough."^[2]

It was released as a single by Helen Schneider in 1981 as well as on her album Schneider with the Kick. According to Byron, Schneider's version went 5× platinum in Germany and the Benelux countries.^[2] This successful song is not mentioned in her own biography. Another version with slightly different lyrics was released by Rachel Sweet on her album ...And Then He Kissed Me in 1981.

The most famous version was then released in September 1982 by American rock singer Pat Benatar, as the lead single from her fourth studio album Get Nervous. Benatar's recording reached number 3 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, the Top 15 on the US Hot 100 and in Canada, and the Top 20 in Australia. "Shadows of the Night" garnered Benatar her third Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1983. The lyrics of Benatar's version differ slightly from both previous versions.

Music video

Benatar's music video for the song centers around Benatar as a riveter dreaming about being a flying ace who fights in World War II. It features Judge Reinhold as a pilot and Bill Paxton as a Wehrmacht Unteroffizier. Benatar's T-6 Texan aircraft is named Midnight Angel, a phrase also used in the song itself with a different meaning ("And now the hands of time are standin' still/Midnight angel, won't you say you will").

Helen Schneider's version has a spaceman and a goat.^[3]^[4]

Chart performance

Chart (1982-83)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)^[5]	29
Canada Top Singles (RPM)	12
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)^[6]	32
UK Singles (OCC)^[7]	83
US Billboard Hot 100^[8]	13
US Billboard Top Rock Tracks^[8]	3

Chart (1985)	Peak position
UK Singles (OCC)^[9]	50

Cover versions

There have been several cover versions of the song over the years:

In 1983, the Rachel Sweet version was covered by singer-songwriter Randy VanWarmer on his album The Things That You Dream.
In 2005, the song was included as a musical number medley with the Quarterflash song "Harden My Heart" in the jukebox musical Rock of Ages.
In the 2012 film adaptation of Rock of Ages, the song is performed by Mary J. Blige.
In 2008, the song was covered by Ashley Tisdale for the soundtrack of the TV film Picture This.
That same year, another cover by Paul Layton was included on the soundtrack of the independent zombie comedy movie Dance of the Dead.
In 2022, Alison Pill sang a jazz cover of the song in Star Trek: Picard as the character Agnes Jurati.
In 2024, Creeper included a cover of the song on an expanded, special edition of their 2023 album Sanguivore

Sampling

In 1995, the melody of the chorus was sampled in the DJ Miko eurodance song "Lovely Lullaby", and again in 2014 in the Demi Lovato song "Really Don't Care".