Benny Mardones, the singer-songwriter best known for his 1980 soft rock hit “Into the Night,” died at age 73 of complications after a two-decade battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Friend and producer Joel Diamond confirmed Mardones’ death to Billboard. A memorial service for the singer will be announced soon.
Mardones was born in 1946 in Cleveland and grew up in Savage, Maryland. He joined the Navy after high school, served in the Vietnam War, then moved to New York to pursue composition. After several years of writing for other artists (including Brenda Lee), she launched her own solo career in the late ’70s: first premiere for Richie Havens on tour in 1977, and then released her debut LP,. Thank goodness for the girls, in 1978.
That first album featured a high-profile team: producer Andrew Loog Oldham (who directed and produced the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967), David Bowie’s regular guitarist, Mick Ronson, and Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley. But Mardones did not find its advance until the 1980s Never run, never hide, which generated the emotional “Into the Night”.
Mardones co-wrote his ballad with Robert Tepper, who achieved his own solo success six years later with “No Easy Way Out” (featured on the Rocky IV soundtrack). While “Into the Night” ended up being Mardones’ only major hit, two versions of the tune actually made it to Billboard’s Hot 100 chart: the original recording from 1980 and a revamped version from 1989 featured on her fourth self-titled LP. (A remix of the 2019 song peaked at number 35 on the Dance Club track list.)
The singer’s career slowed down over the next decade, but he continued to play live and record throughout the 1990s and ’00s, even after his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2000. He released his latest studio project, Eternal, in 2015.
.
