Moonlight Shadow

This article is about the song. For the novella by Banana Yoshimoto, partly based this song, see Moonlight Shadow (novella).

"Moonlight Shadow"
Song
B-side	"Rite of Man"

"Moonlight Shadow"
Song

"Moonlight Shadow" is a pop song written by British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield and released as a single in May 1983 and included on the album Crises in the same year. The vocals were performed by the Scottish vocalist Maggie Reilly, who had joined Mike Oldfield in 1980.

Release

The single peaked at #4 in the British charts, making it Oldfield's second highest ranked single after "Portsmouth" which reached #3 in 1976. "Moonlight Shadow" was successful throughout Europe, spending four weeks at #2 in Germany, four weeks at #1 in Switzerland and six weeks at #1 in Norway. It also hit #6 in Australia. It was re-released as a maxi-CD single in 1993 to promote Oldfield's Elements box set, charting at number 52.

A 12" single (later reissued on a 3" CD single) featured an extended version of the song with an extra verse and the single B-side was "Rite of Man" which was a rare instance of Oldfield singing lead vocal. The extended mix also appears on his compilation album The Platinum Collection.

Maggie Reilly sang "Moonlight Shadow" live when she toured with Oldfield in the 1980s. However since then, other singers have performed the song live with Oldfield including, Anita Hegerland and Miriam Stockley.

Production

An early version of the song was entitled "Midnight Passion" with vocals by British singer Hazel O'Connor. Along with Maggie Reilly, a girlfiend of one of the roadies when Oldfield was on tour, Oldfield used a rhyming dictionary and recorded many of the lyrics word by word. According to Oldfield, Virgin Records were immediately happy with the song and wanted more pieces similar to it.

Oldfield later sampled the drums from "Moonlight Shadow" for the song "Man in the Rain" on his 1998 album, Tubular Bells III.

Lyrical content

It was long believed that the lyrics are a reference to the murder of John Lennon, although when asked about this in a 1995 interview, Oldfield responded:

[It's] not really [about Lennon]... well, perhaps, when I look back on it, maybe it was. I actually arrived in New York that awful evening when he was shot and I was staying at the Virgin Records house in Perry Street, which was just a few blocks down the road from the Dakota Building where it happened, so it probably sank into my subconscious. It was originally inspired by a film I loved - Houdini, starring Tony Curtis, which was about attempts to contact Houdini after he'd died, through spiritualism... it was originally a song influenced by that, but a lot of other things must have crept in there without me realising it.

— Mike Oldfield, http://tubular.net/articles/95_06.shtml

The Lennon story may have arisen as a consequence of the content of the promo video that accompanied the song, which juxtaposes footage of Oldfield and his band playing the song with a loose storyline in which Oldfield plays a man who gets killed in a pistol duel. It is worth noting that there are two versions of the video, the full-length original, and a shorter one which omits a verse (the reason for the shorter version being created is unknown), and the way both versions are edited suggests that Oldfield's touring guitarist "Ant" performed the second, rockier half of the memorable guitar solo, which is not the case.

Track listing

7-inch vinyl

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (7" mix) - 3:37
2. "Rite of Man" - 2:21

12-inch vinyl

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) - 5:18
2. "Rite of Man" - 2:21

1988 CD

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) - 5:18
2. "Rite of Man" - 2:21
3. "To France" - 4:44
4. "Jungle Gardenia" - 02:44

1993 CD

1. "Moonlight Shadow" - 3:35
2. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) - 5:18
3. "In the Pool" - 3:40
4. "Bones" - 3:19

Chart positions

Chart (1983)	Peak position
Norwegian Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	1
Swedish Singles Chart	1
Dutch Singles Chart	2
Swiss Singles Chart	1
German Singles Chart	2
Austrian Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	4
Australian Singles Chart	6

Personnel

• Mike Oldfield: Guitars, Fairlight CMI
• Maggie Reilly: Vocals
• Phil Spalding: Bass guitar
• Simon Phillips: Drums

Appearances in other media

The original song also appeared on the soundtrack of the Italian comedy Vacanze di Natale (1983). Also, it is the theme song for Dave Angel, Eco-Warrior, a character in the BBC TV comedy series The Fast Show. The French television station Direct used Moonlight Shadow as its main jingle.

Cover versions

Numerous cover versions of "Moonlight Shadow" have been performed over the years, including by The Shadows (a band whom Oldfield was influenced by) on their 1986 album Moonlight Shadows. Notably Oldfield had also covered a Shadows song, "Wonderful Land".

Japanese artist KOKIA included a cover version on her 7th single, "Ningen-tte Sonna Mono ne". A cover of the song appears as a hidden track on the album Command To Charge by German Melodic Death Metal band Suidakra. A techno remix version was also released by DJ Mystik. Frérérique covered the track on their Irish Ties album. German band X-Perience have also covered "Moonlight Shadow". Juliane Werding released a German-language version of the song, titled "Nacht Voll Schatten".

The game Dance Dance Revolution has the Missing Heart version on Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX for PlayStation/Arcade, Dance Dance Revolution Party Collection for PlayStation 2, and Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 2 for Xbox. Child singer Aselin Debison covered it on her Sweet Is the Melody album. Austrian band 'Code 7' covered the track. The band '1000 Years' covered "Moonlight Shadow" on the compilation 'Crazy Mix 2002'.

The British band Renaissance covered the song on the 2002 live album In the Land of the Rising Sun. Italian power metal band Skylark also covered the song on their 2005 album Fairytales. The track also appears as a B-side on the 2007 single "Y Ahora Voy a Salir (Ranxeira)" by Spanish folk metal band Mägo de Oz. In 2007 the song was covered by ItaloBrothers, an italo dance project from Germany. Also in 2007 hardcore group Noize Incorporated also covered the song for their 2007 album Mutilation.

Groove Coverage cover

"Moonlight Shadow"
Song

In 2002 a dance version by Groove Coverage reached the German Top 10 (simultaneously, a similar version of Oldfield's "To France" by Novaspace was in the German Top 30). The retail clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch is currently using a re-mixed Groove Coverage version of the track on its April 2006 in-store ProDisc music CD from vendor "DMX" or Digital Music Express.

Track listings

CD single

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Radio Version) (2:52)
2. "Moonlight Shadow" (Original Radio Edit) (2:54)
3. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended Version) (6:56)
4. "Moonlight Shadow" (Rocco Remix) (6:58)
5. "Moonlight Shadow" (Warp Brothers Remix) (7:37)
6. "Moonlight Shadow" (Video) (2:53)

Maxi single

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Radio Version) (2:52)
2. "Moonlight Shadow" (Original Radio Edit) (2:59)
3. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended Version) (6:58)
4. "Moonlight Shadow" (Rocco Remix) (6:58)
5. "Beat Just Goes" (3:53)

Remix single

A-side

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended Version)

B-side

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Club Version)
2. "Beat Just Goes" (Club Mix)

Chart positions

Chart (2002)	Peak position
Germany Singles Chart	3
Austria Singles Chart	5
Swiss Singles Chart	52
Australian Singles Chart	39
Europe Singles Chart	12
World Singles Chart	30

References

3. "Information about the single". Tubular-World.com. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
4. "Gareth Randall Interviews Mike Oldfield". Tubular.net. 1995-06-01. Retrieved 2008-03-29.