In a comment yesterday … or was it the day before … Larry (justdrivewillyou) mentioned that this is his favourite song by the 5th Dimension, so since Larry absolutely hated Good Morning Starshine when I played it a couple of days ago, I figured I owed him one!
This song was written by Tony Macaulay and performed by The 5th Dimension with instrumental backing from L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Crew. The song appeared on the band’s album Individually & Collectively, produced by Bones Howe and arranged by Bill Holman. The song was a top 10 hit for the group in the U.S., and their sixth and final platinum record.
SongFacts doesn’t even have an entry for this one, so what little background I found came from Wikipedia:
Tony Macaulay began work on the song while in Tokyo for the World Popular Song Festival of 1972. He met fellow attendees the Carpenters and was inspired to write a song emulating their hit “We’ve Only Just Begun” (Macaulay: “I liked the feel of that, the shuffle feel of it”). Macaulay recalls that due to changing time zones “I was awake all night and sleeping all day [in Tokyo]. So I just got up in the night and I wrote it”. Although he was having sleepless nights in Tokyo, it was the melody rather than the lyrics that he wrote there. The lyrics were completed after Macaulay’s return to London “in a taxi stuck in a traffic jam … in about an hour going from one side of London to another”.
Macaulay sent a demo of the song to the Carpenters. “They said they loved it and they’d do it. [Later] I got a phone call about 2 o’clock in the morning that woke me up (they hadn’t figured out the time change between here and America). They said ‘Oh, we can’t record it because it mentions sleeping pills and they are drugs and we don’t mention drugs.’ So I got up in the middle of the night and rewrote the last verse without the sleeping pills.” However, Macaulay was not happy with the change to the lyric, so when Bones Howe contacted him the next week, Macaulay pitched “(Last Night)…” for the 5th Dimension, who recorded it with the sleeping pill reference intact.
The lead vocals on the 5th Dimension’s recording are performed by Marilyn McCoo.
The song charted at #6 in Canada and #8 in the U.S., but did not chart much of anywhere else except Australia (#7).
(Last Night) I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All
The 5th Dimension
Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all, no, no
I laid, waked and watched until the morning light
Washed away the darkness of the lonely night
Last night I got to think maybe I should call you up
And just forget my foolish pride
I heard your number ringing
I were cold inside
Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all
I know it’s not my fault I did my best
God knows this heart of mine could use a rest
What more and more I find the dreams I left behind
Are somehow too real to replace
Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all
The sleeping pill I took was just a waste of time
I couldn’t close my eyes ’cause you were on my mind
Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all
Didn’t get to sleep, no I didn’t get to sleep at all
What more and more I find the dreams I left behind
Are somehow too real to replace
Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all, no, no
The sleeping pill I took was just a waste of time
I couldn’t close my eyes ’cause you were on my mind
Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all
No I didn’t get to sleep, didn’t get to sleep at all
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Tony Macaulay
(Last Night) I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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