Canadian Nick Gilder had a penchant for writing sugary-sweet pop/rock songs about underage hookers/street trash/what have you for a couple of years in the mid-Á¢€Ëœ70s with CanadaÁ¢€â„¢s glam answer to The Sweet, Sweeney Todd. But after scoring a #1 hit and a Juno Award up north in 1975 with the single Á¢€Å“Roxy Roller,Á¢€ Gilder struck out on his own for solo stardom, giving a young 16-year old Bryan Adams his shot as Sweeney ToddÁ¢€â„¢s new lead singer (wonder whatever happened to that Adams kid?).
GilderÁ¢€â„¢s first solo album came and went with nary a blip, but in 1978, the lead single off his second album, City Nights, changed everything. Á¢€Å“Hot Child in the CityÁ¢€ hit the top of the charts in the U.S. and Canada — and made the Top Ten in quite a few other territories — making Gilder the one of the hottest new superstars in rock.
Then came follow-up time.
Á¢€Here Comes the NightÁ¢€ seemed a natural for City Nights‘ second single. It was written by Gilder and his guitarist James McCulloch, just like Á¢€Å“Hot Child in the City.Á¢€ It was instantly catchy, just like Á¢€Å“Hot Child in the City.Á¢€ It was about hot jailbait, just like Á¢€Å“Hot Child in the City.Á¢€ But it was a flop, not like Á¢€Å“Hot Child in the City.Á¢€
To this day, IÁ¢€â„¢m confounded by Á¢€Å“…NightÁ¢€â„¢sÁ¢€ failure to become a hit. As a admittedly pop-forward-thinking 10-year old, I bought the 45 and wore it out, even more than Á¢€Å“Hot Child.Á¢€ I even held up my little portable cassette player to my stand-alone phonograph and recorded it over and over, so I’d have the song on a nice loop and wouldn’t have to wait for the tone arm to go back and forth before I could hear it again.
This explains much about me.
“Here Comes the Night” peaked at #44 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart in 1978.
City Nights was recently re-released on CD alongside the next Nick Gilder album Frequency as a two-fer — you can grab them both for a decent price on Amazon
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