♫ We’ve Got Tonight ♫ (Redux+Plus)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

Well, this was going to be a ________________ Week, as I mentioned yesterday, but since I didn’t get it kick-started on Monday, I’ve decided to wait ’til next week for that.  Which … gives me the opportunity to play this one that I last played a few years ago … March 2020 … as part of my Kenny Rogers tribute week!  It’s just what I was in the mood for tonight, so … just listen and smile and be happy, ‘k?  I have added the Bob Seger version (hence the title “Redux+ Plus”), since I played only the Kenny Rogers/Sheena Easton version last time and several readers said they preferred Seger’s … I aim to please, y’know!

This is next on the list of requests for Kenny Rogers’ tribute week, and as I listened to it, I noticed that something about it bothered me.  I listened again, checked out a couple of other versions, but something still didn’t sound quite right.  And then, I figured it out.  Now, you all know I love Kenny Rogers, he is in my top ten favourites (Stevie Wonder is in the #1 slot), but for this song, I prefer the original done by Bob Seger.  However … this is a week-long tribute to the late Kenny Rogers, not the still-living Seger, so …

Seger wrote this and first recorded it on his 1978 album Stranger in Town. Seger wrote the song after seeing the movie The Sting, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. In the film, there’s scene where Redford puts the moves on a waitress, who says, “I don’t even know you.” He replies: “You know me. I’m the same as you. It’s two in the morning and I don’t know nobody.”  According to Seger …

“That just hit me real hard. The next day I wrote ‘We’ve Got Tonight,’ this song about two people who say ‘I’m tired. It’s late at night. I know you don’t really dig me, and I don’t really dig you, but this is all we’ve got, so let’s do it.’ The sexual revolution was still going strong then.”

In 1983, Kenny Rogers recorded the song as a duet with Scottish pop star Sheena Easton, and made it the title track of his album We’ve Got Tonight.  Said Rogers …

“I liked the idea of recording with Sheena: I thought the contrast in styles – I’m so throaty and she’s so trained and pure – would really work well.”

Easton’s contribution to the track would prove a bone of critical contention: whereas Rolling Stone critic Christopher Connelly would dismiss the Easton/Rogers duet of We’ve Got Tonight as “shrieking [and] insensitive”, and Jerseyite critic Jim Bohen would lament how Rogers “who usually sounds good duetting with women” was defeated by “Easton’s nails-across-the-blackboard voice”, Dennis Hunt (Los Angeles Times) would prefer the Rogers/Easton take to the Seger original due to a “very appealing blend of sharply contrasting voices, his deep and hers very high” adding that “Rogers, never known for his vocal power, stretches to match Easton, [attaining] his finest vocal performance”, and AllMusic critic Joe Viglione would opine that Easton’s “splendid voice reaching the high registers over Kenny’s familiar monotone…really makes [the track] special.”

This song (Seger’s version) charted at #9 in Canada, #13 in the U.S., and #41 in the UK.

We’ve Got Tonight
Bob Seger, Kenny Rogers/Sheena Easton

I know it’s late, I know you’re weary
I know your plans don’t include me
Still here we are, both of us lonely
Longing for shelter from all that we see
Why should we worry, no one will care girl
Look at the stars so far away
We’ve got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We’ve got tonight babe
Why don’t you stay?

Deep in my soul I’ve been so lonely
All of my hopes fading away
I’ve longed for love like everyone else does
I know I’ll keep searching even after today
So there it is girl, I’ve said it all now
And here we are babe, what do you say?
We’ve got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We’ve got tonight babe
Why don’t you stay?

I know it’s late, I know you’re weary
I know your plans don’t include me
Still here we are, both of us lonely
Both of us lonely

We’ve got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
Let’s make it last, let’s find a way
Turn out the light, come take my hand now
We’ve got tonight babe
Why don’t you stay?
Why don’t you stay?

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Bob Seger
We’ve Got Tonight lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

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48 thoughts on “♫ We’ve Got Tonight ♫ (Redux+Plus)”

  1. The original is one of the best songs of a guy who has given us so much great music. The duet cover is an abomination that should have been strangled at birth, like their overstretched vocals.

    Liked by 2 people

    • No no no no no … Kenny Rogers week was back in 2020, right after he died! I only mentioned it because that’s when I last played this song! Sorry to disappoint, but you can go back and listen to the ones from 2020 if you like!

      Liked by 2 people

      • That’s absolutely true! I am an aromatherapist and so, I second that with the smells linked to memories. That’s why learning and music or learning and smelling something specific is a helpful tool to remember the learned better.

        Liked by 1 person

        • An aromatherapist? I didn’t know such existed! How cool! I know sometimes I’ll be in a store and walk by someone wearing a perfume and it immediately brings thoughts of someone, often my mother (or father, depending on the scent).

          Liked by 2 people

          • I am working with essential oils which not only work for the skin, and (by example through massage are worked into the body), over the blood stream in the whole organism but also over our smell system. It can affect our hormones and mental condition. They are natural power essences (but only if 100 % natural essential oils).
            Oh, yes, I hear you. When I am outside in fall and smell someone is burning wood and leaves, it reminds me when I was a little kid going with my little bike accompanied by my grandpa. It was fall too when that smell got into my nose. An unspectacular yet unforgettable childhood moment.

            Liked by 2 people

        • On my daily walks with Ace as sniffs and pees on everything I can only wonder what it is like to smell in three dimensions like a dog. My sister often commented after she went blind how much different and more vibrant the smells became.

          Liked by 2 people

          • I have often thought about how I would hear and smell things if I was blind. If you can’t see anything, then there’s one less thing to distract you. And at the same time, you automatically focus more on the other senses (and for orientation reasons).
            How is your sister doing? It must be very hard if you go blind after you could see.

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            • She contracted histoplasmosis in childhood and it pushed her to legal blindness. She was constantly in remedial training with her service dogs since she had residual peripheral vision and her dogs learned that she was not “really blind” so they would go off training. Medical science has advanced. Doctors have given her some of her vision back and she is no longer blind. We are such fools, we should live our lives on our knees in homage to the blessings we have in this age.
              Is you aromatherapy part of a broader homeopathic or holistic medical practice? I have been able to add some practices of Dirk Gently the holistic detective to problem solving. I also have met this blind guy who sees better than anyone else I have ever met. Richard Turner don’t gamble with him.
              https://youtu.be/M0ddoWjGYKs

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              • I think she appreciates the restricted eyesight she has much more than we appreciate our full sight. I am glad, she is able to see again at least a bit.

                It is a holistic treatment but has nothing to do with homeopathy. The essences are working on the physical as on the mental level. They affect our hormones, can relaxe, help to sleep better, treat skin and muscles, help during colds or are supportive during other illnesses. They smell strongly which is the main reason they work mentally too. I do massages with essential oils but also put them into my natural cosmetics.

                Wow, that man is amazing. He is the proof that no matter what restriction your body may show – still, everything is possible. Amazing!!

                Liked by 1 person

  8. Jill, I am a huge Bob Seger fan, so I will go with his version. We once decided late to go to a Bob Seger concert, so our tickets were up in the rafters, I think the next to last row. So, we saw Seger, but he was a little guy on a faraway stage.

    I remember his drummer on this tour was Don Brewer who played with Grand Funk Railroad, another Detroit band who had a number of hits in the 1960s and early 1970s. By the way, Glenn Frey was an early guitarist with Seger’s band before he left to join another band called The Eagles. You may have heard of them. 😊

    Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • I think you have been to a concert by every musician and group in the country at least once! Ha ha … yes, I think I do remember Glenn Frey and the Eagles … I didn’t know that he had been a member of Seger’s band, though! Glad you enjoyed the song and thanks for updating my knowledge base … I love learning new things about favourite songs and artists!

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Your mention of Seger’s album STRANGER IN TOWN reminded me of a melancholy song of that title composed and recorded by Mel Tormé in 1945. I like it a lot, but I won’t link to it here because you may not be a fan of (or even remember) Mel.

    Liked by 3 people

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