The irony is in that I posted this song in another weeklong tribute series … one to the late Kenny Rogers shortly after his death in 2020! I loved the way Kenny and Sheena Easton did this one, though I did note at that time that I preferred the Bob Seger version. And now, it is Bob Seger week and I get a good excuse to play it again, only this time featuring Bob Seger! I think this and Against The Wind are my two favourite Seger songs.
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.”
Rather reminds me of Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night.
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.”
Bob Seger’s version that I’m playing tonight hit #9 in Canada, #13 in the U.S., and of all the Seger songs I’ve played I think this is the first to actually chart in the UK, albeit in different years: #41 in 1979, #60 in 1982, and finally #22 in 1995.
We’ve Got Tonight
Bob Seger
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
Filosofa's Word 