In these troubled times, it can seem as if the world will never agree on anything ever again. That’s why I am pleased to report that I may have stumbled upon one unifying factor. Something that ties all manner of race, religion, and gender together.
Whether you live in the city or the rain forest, eat processed sugars or cruciferous veggies, are enjoying season 4 of Ted Lasso or insist on ruining my social media feed by telling me how much you genuinely dislike season 4 of Ted Lasso, I know this much about you. You enjoy a good song about a one-night stand.
I came upon this quite by accident. I chanced to hear a couple of songs that circled this particular theme recently and wondered if it might make for a good little article. As is usually the case, I had several titles in mind right away but wanted to ask around...do a bit of research to see what I was forgetting, or what I had never even heard of. The results of that short research were mind-blowing.
10 great rock songs that prove our fascination with one-night stands
I think there are fifty different pop-related songs with the title “One Night Stand.” Maybe more. It might be the most common song title there is. I’m not really sure how to test that. And it spans time and place and genre. Hip-hop and country, bluegrass and Afrobeat. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if back in the day there was a popular Gregorian chant called “Concubitis unius noctis.”
Soul music has plenty of songs on the subject. There’s a German pop song called “One Night Stand” by Marina Marx, but since everything but the title is in German, I really don’t know what that song is about.
I do know what the comedy team Garfunkel & Oates are singing about in their song of the same name.
“This might be strange to tell you
And I swear I’m not a whore
But there are 206 bones in my body
And I’d really like one more.”
That’s a one-night stand song.
And in the 1970s, when rock & roll was still king, it seems as if everyone was up for a quickie with a stranger. I’m not going to count ambiguous stories like “Lola” by the Kinks or Joan Jett’s cover of “I Love Rock N’ Roll.” After the one-night part, Ray Davies seems content to stick with Lola, and Joan may have kept the boy by the record machine around for more than one night.
Alas, we may never know.
But we do know … well, for the most part anyway … about these ten classics from the 1970s … well, for the most part anyway.
“Stay With Me” by Faces (1971)
“In the morning, don’t say you love me
‘Cause I’ll only kick you out the door.”
That romantic devil Rod Stewart had a way with words. This is a blunt invitation -- or perhaps a command -- to enjoy the pleasures of one evening, and then lose my number. At least it has that ultra-cool fuzz guitar courtesy of Ronnie Wood.
Fun fact: Faces would not stay with each other for much longer after this. They would split up a couple of years later. But they have gotten back together periodically over the years, perhaps suggesting that even one-night stands can yield a second act.
“Scarlett Begonias” by the Grateful Dead (1974)
“From the other direction she was calling my eye
It could be an illusion, but I might as well try.”
OK, two songs in and I have to admit, I’m not really sure that this song is about a one-night stand. I never really know what a lot of Robert Hunter's lyrics are actually about. But I imagine he does. And Jerry probably does. And it might be about a one-nighter.
It’s certainly about instant attraction and flirtation, which, of what the hell, I am going to say, led to a night in a Grosvenor Square hotel. I suppose this all comes down to whether letting her “pass by” refers to that night or to a possible future together.
“Simple Twist of Fate” by Bob Dylan (1975)
“He woke up the room was bare
He didn’t see her anywhere
Told himself that he didn’t care
Pushed the window open wide
Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate.”
This is on my Dylan Mt. Rushmore, so I guess I am a bit biased. There will be at least one song coming up about the tangible toll a chance encounter can take on a careless paramour. This is about the psychological devastation. Dylan does psychological devastation better than I make eggplant parm. (And my eggplant parm is pretty damn good.)
“What’s Your Name” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (1977)
“I done made some plans for later on tonight
I’ll find a little queen and I know I can treat right.”
We now enter the late ‘70s, when every other song on your FM dial seemed to be about some manner of chance encounter. I am allowing the late, great Ronnie Van Zandt to represent all those songs which involved a rocker, a groupie, and a cheap motel. Names not required.
“Goodbye Girl” by Squeeze (1978)
“Sunlight on the lino
Woke me with a shake
I looked around to find her but she’d gone
Goodbye girl…”
Remember two songs back when I mentioned the emotional devastation of the Dylan song? Well, Glenn Tilbrook may have suffered some of that as well, but he also lost his silver razor, club room locker key, all the cash he had on him, and, apparently, his wife. This is not one of the happier outcomes, though he does seem oddly copacetic about the whole affair.
“Coyote” by Joni Mitchell (1978)
“There’s just no comprehending
Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes
And the lips you can get
And still feel so alone…”
This one also probably isn’t really about a one-nighter, per se. It’s about a short, intense relationship doomed to fail because of how different the two would-be partners are.
Since the two real-life partners in question – Joni and playwright Sam Shepard – were among the two most gifted writers the English language had back in the 1970s, I’d like to think that maybe it could have worked. But at least it left us with one of Joni’s brilliant jazzy/rock hybrids about the impossibility of connection.
“Street Hassle” by Lou Reed (1978)
“And then sha-la-la-la-la, he made love to her gently
It was like she’d never ever come
And then sha-la-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la-la
When the sun rose and he made to leave
You know sha-la-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la
Neither one regretted a thing.”
I am referring only to the opening section of Reed’s magnum opus. The entire song is split into three sections, running eleven minutes. The opening part – “Waltzing Matilda” – is pure Reed. A very graphic description of sex between two totally anonymous people, which has absolutely zero negative connotation.
Take that, conservative middle America. (That’s Lou talking – not me. I would never say such a thing.)
“Goodbye Stranger” by Supertramp (1979)
“Was early morning yesterday, I was up before the dawn
And I really have enjoyed my stay, but I must be moving on.”
Bluegrass legend John Hartford wrote the definitive f**k-and-run song back in the mid-'60s. Glenn Campbell would later score a major success with that song – “Gentle on My Mind” – confirming the joys of what we may call loose romantic commitments. (Ernie Maresca’s “The Wanderer,” made famous by Dion, predates “Gentle on My Mind,” but I never took to its exuberant braggadocio.)
Rick Davies reworked the idea and struck pop gold a decade later, making it into the top 20 in the USA. It performed best in Canada, where they apparently love a good romantic drifter story.
“You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC (1980)
“Working double time on the seduction line
She’s one of a kind, just mine all mine”
Leave it to some raucous Aussies to remind us all that just because it’s a one-night stand, that does not mean there is only one high point to the evening. You can go another round or take another swing, provided that in the morning, you refer back to the Faces song that began this list.
Brian Johnson’s first single in place of Bon Scott. Fun fact, pt 2: the American band Rhino Bucket, who sound exactly like AC/DC, kicked off their 1990 self-titled debut album with a song called .... wait for it .... "One Night Stand."
“One Night Stand” by Janis Joplin and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1982)
“Just because we loved tonight
Please don’t you think it’s gonna stay that way
Don’t you know that you’re nothing more than a one-night stand?”
I realize 1982 is not part of the 1970s. (1980, on the other hand, is.) But I’m ending with this song for several reasons. For one thing, Janis recorded it in 1970. It wasn’t released for another 12 years as part of her Farewell Song album.
For another thing, it’s a great song featuring elite artists at the top of their craft. And, since I decided early on to limit myself to just one song that used “One Night Stand” for the title, I thought this would be a good one.
As the quoted lyric above shows, there is nothing ambiguous here. It is as plain-spoken as it gets. Somehow, I figure whoever Janis was singing this song to may have been disappointed with her conclusion, but didn’t regret the experience for one second.
One-night-stand songs didn’t end after the ‘70s. Prince upped the game with “Darling Nikki” a few years later, and then Liz Phair roared back with “F**k and Run” in the ‘90s. In the 21st century, lesser-known rockers like Divide the Sky and Hinder, and luminaries like Alice Cooper and Blink-182 have all released songs entitled “One Night Stand.”
“The taste, the sin, one, two, three
You were like a hit of some ecstasy.”
I think we’ll still be singing about one-night stands for many years to come.
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