It's always interested (sometimes annoyed) me that different, often wildly different, songs can have the same title. There are of course some titles which are seen as sacrosanct --- no-one in their right mind is going to call a song “Stairway to Heaven”, for instance, or “Free bird”, or even “Bat out of Hell”. These titles are already so famous and forever tied in with the songs they represent that anyone seeing them credited to another artist would just assume they were covers of the original, and no-one wants that if this is a new song we're talking about.
There are also long or obscure titles, titles no-one but the original artist would consider using. “Scenes from an Italian restaurant”. “Over the hills and far away”. “Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis.” These are inspired titles, unique titles and no-one else would think of using them. They pretty much fit the song that has been written and would not fit any other. But most other things are game. Words are words, after all, and there is no copyright on a song title, so far as I know.
And so we end up with many songs which have the same title, but are completely different, often by artistes working in totally separate genres. I want to explore one of these here today, in this first edition of this new section. I'm going to be taking a look at a song which has had several incarnations under the one name, two in fact by the same artiste. It's called “Open all night”.
Open all night (Bruce Springsteen) from “Nebraska”
Bruce's version comes from the acoustic album “Nebraska”, and is a fast, rockabilly-style song of a guy out on the road heading home. As do all the tracks on the album, it features only the Boss himself, on guitar with no percussion, keyboards, bass, anything, but somehow he manages to make the guitar sound like a full band. His voice, too, sounds like it's coming from some sort of empty auditorium, with a sound both big and expansive and also intimate.
Open all night (Georgia Satellites) from “Open all night”
Another rockin' track from the Georgia Satellites, this actually surprisingly contains some similar melodies to Springsteen's version, though it's a slower, more bluesy feel to it, kind of southern boogie. From the album of the same name, it's a great rocker.
Open all night (Hall and Oates) from “H20”
Then there's the version from Daryl Hall and John Oates. You couldn't get much further from the rock of Springsteen and the Satellites, this being a laidback, soul ballad featuring the smooth voice of Daryl Hall, from the H2O album, one of their biggest successes.
Open all night (Marc Almond) from “Open all night”
And moving even further away from rock towards --- well, how would you describe Marc Almond of Soft Cell? No, don't be mean!
Anyway, he too had an album, seems to have been live, though I'm no fan so I can't be sure, also called “Open all night” and the title track from it is what appears to be a jazzy/soul half-ballad, though to be honest the only version I could get on YT has not got the best sound...
Open all night (Bon Jovi) from “Bounce”
Bon Jovi actually used this song title twice, first in the closing track to their 2002 album “Bounce”, where it's a tender, soft little ballad about two damaged souls meeting in a bar and exchanging stories of the hurts they've experienced.
Open all night (Bon Jovi) from “One hundred million Bon Jovi fans can't be wrong”
Then on the rarities/unreleased box set, “One hundred million Bon Jovi fans can't be wrong”, they used it again but this time as a mid-paced rocker, with a far different message, as two lovers split and Jon tells her don't worry about me I'll be all right.