A new version of Benny Mardones’ biggest hit, “Into the Night,” has been released posthumously.
Mardones, who called Syracuse his second home, recorded a duet version of “Into the Night” with singer Julio Iglesias, Jr., shortly before Mardones’ death in 2020. Iglesias released the track last week, reimagining the ‘80s song with a mix of big band, swing, and even a little reggae soul.
According to a press release, the song will be featured on Iglesias’ upcoming album, “Under the Covers,” due out Feb. 7, 2023. Other tracks will include “Careless Whisper” (with Jewel), “I’m Too Sexy” (with Right Said Fred), a Steve Wonder medley with Brian McKnight, and covers of Marvin Gaye (”What’s Going On”), Tears for Fears (”Everybody Wants to Rule the World”), Billy Joel (”Just the Way You Are”), and Ed Sheeran (”Shape of You”).
Iglesias, Jr., the 49-year-old son of legendary Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias and older brother of Latin pop star Enrique Iglesias, said “Into the Night” holds special significance for him.
“I first moved to the U.S. from Spain when I was nine years old and I spoke very little English, but I listened to the radio a lot and it actually helped me learn the language,” said Julio Iglesias, Jr. “Driving to and from school, we would always listen to the radio and this song was always on. There was not one day that it wasn’t playing. So, to be able to revisit this song and the memories I have with it means so much, and to sing alongside Benny Mardones himself on this song is so special.”
Mardones, also known as “The Voice,” died at his California home in 2020 after nearly two decades of struggling with Parkinson’s disease. He was 73.
He was best known for “Into the Night,” one of the few songs to reach the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 twice. The rock ballad appeared on his 1980 album “Never Run, Never Hide,” and hit No. 11 that year; nine years later, an Arizona radio DJ’s “Where Are They Now?” special helped propel the song back to popularity, ascending to No. 20 in America in 1989.
Between those nine years, Mardones struggled with cocaine and alcohol, and stopped performing after his 1981 album flopped. After his son was born in 1985, he moved to Syracuse to get clean. He successfully kicked the drug habit and began performing again with a Central New York band, The Hurricanes, drawing large crowds of 15,000 at Long Branch Park and 24,000 at Weedsport Speedway.
“When I was addicted to drugs, Syracuse opened its arms to me,” he told syracuse.com in 2017, before playing his final show at the Turning Stone Resort Casino. “It gave me my life back. The fans never wavered. The radio stations played my songs.”
This isn’t the first time Mardones has remade “Into the Night.” He previously released a re-recording in 1989, an acoustic version in 2002, a hip-hop remake with Conrad Hilton (no relation to the Hilton Hotels family) in 2006, dance remixes by Eric Kupper and Dirty Werk in 2019, and an orchestral version last year. A handful of artists have also covered it, including Jamaican reggae singer Junior Tucker, and Usher sampled the track on his 2010 song “Making Love (Into the Night).”