Help Me Make It Through the Night

"Help Me Make It Through The Night" is a country music ballad written and composed by Kris Kristofferson and released on his 1970 album Kristofferson.

Though it was also recorded in 1971 by Elvis Presley, four others recorded it in 1971: Joan Baez for her album Blessed Are... (July 1971), Gladys Knight & The Pips in 1972, Bryan Ferry for his album Another Time, Another Place (October 1974), Jerry Lee Lewis, who did a bluesy version for his album Touching Home, and country singer Sammi Smith, whose recording of the song is the most commercially successful and most well-known version in the United States. Smith's recording ranks among the most successful country singles of all time in terms of sales, popularity and radio airplay. Her recording topped the country singles chart, and was also a crossover hit, reaching number eight on the U.S. pop singles chart.

Other American singers, including Dottie West, also recorded the song throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The most successful version, after Smith's, was recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1972 (this version was later sampled extensively to create Huff and Puff's 1996 dance track "Help Me Make It").^[1]

Background and writing

Kristofferson said that he got the inspiration for the song from an Esquire magazine interview with Frank Sinatra. When asked what he believed in, Frank replied, "Booze, broads, or a bible...whatever helps me make it through the night."

During his time as a struggling songwriter, Kristofferson wrote the song while staying with Dottie West and her husband, Bill, at their home on Shy's Hill Road in Nashville's Green Hills neighborhood. When he offered Dottie the song, she originally claimed it was "too suggestive" for her. Eventually, she would record it before the year was out, and it is included on her album Careless Hands. However, by then, several others had recorded and released versions of it, some garnering great success. Later on, West said that not recording it when it was originally offered to her was one of the greatest regrets of her career.

Content

Kristofferson's original lyrics speak of a man's yearning for sexual intimacy, yet they were controversial in 1971 because they were sung by a woman: I don't care what's right or wrong, I don't try to understand / Let the devil take tomorrow, Lord tonight I need a friend.

Cover versions

Conventional

Cover versions of the song appeared in early 1970s albums by Lynn Anderson, Glen Campbell, Loretta Lynn, Olivia Newton-John, Andy Williams, Skeeter Davis, Tammy Wynette, and the aforementioned Dottie West.^[2] Ray Price recorded the song on his For The Good Times which was released slightly before Sammi Smith's single release. Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, also covered it as a duet. The recording is found on the 2006 compilation June Carter and Johnny Cash: Duets, released by Sony BMG. In this version, Johnny Cash inserts "June" before the line tonight I need a friend. Among other notables recording the song were Jeannie C. Riley and Charley Pride.

Sammi Smith's recording reached number-one on the U.S. country charts and won the Grammy Award for Best Country Music Female performance. On February 20, 1971, it reached number 8 on Billboard's U.S. pop singles chart, and also enjoyed success in Canada. Adult-Contemporary stations took to the song, and it peaked at number 3 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. Additionally, it spent three weeks at number 1 on the Country chart.^[3] The song became a gold record.

Later in 1971, Joan Baez also recorded the song, including it on her Blessed Are... album. (In her 1987 memoir, Baez disclosed that she had had an affair with Kristofferson himself at the same approximate time.) Peggy Lee also recorded the song that year for her album Where Did They Go.

Engelbert Humperdinck recorded the song on his 1971 album Another Time, Another Place and again in 2009 for A Taste of Country.

In 1972, the version which Knight and the Pips had recorded and released reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, and was a Top 10 pop hit in the United Kingdom.

In 1972, John Huston used Kristofferson's version as the theme for his feature Fat City. It plays under the title credits, with instrumental arrangements later in the movie.

In 1974, John Holt covered the song on his album 1000 Volts of Holt. That year, his cut of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" from the album also made it into the UK Top Ten.

Later in 1974, late child star/performer Lena Zavaroni covered it and she performed it live on numerous shows, and it was taken from her Ma! album. She performed it again in 1989, singing it live at her own wedding. In 1976 Sergio Franchi recorded his tenor/crossover version on the 1976 DynaHouse album 20 Magnificent Songs.^[4]

In 1975, the French Canadian singer Claude Valade recorded a French version of the song Aide-moi à passer la nuit produced and distributed by London Deram Records. The song made its way to fame and was on the charts (3rd place) for more than six months.^[5] In 2007, it was recorded for a second time in French with Annie Blanchard (Musicor Records) and the song made the Top 20 (6th place) for 26 weeks.^[6] The French lyrics were written by the Canadian author-composer and singer Christine Charbonneau.

In 1978, Kristofferson himself made a guest appearance on the television series The Muppet Show, and in the course of that guest appearance, he performed "Help Me Make It Through the Night" as a duet with a besotted Miss Piggy.
In 2008, Mariah Carey covered the song during filming of the movie Tennessee.^[7] As of the middle of July 2015, it was not known to have been included on any of her albums from that period.

In 1979, Harry James recorded a version on his album Still Harry After All These Years (Sheffield Lab LAB-11).

In 2013, American Idol contestant Kree Harrison covered this song during season 12 on "Songs They Wish They Had Written" week.

In 2014, Bryan Adams covered the song for his album Tracks of My Years.

Novelty and other language

Barry Humphries, in the lecherous persona of his character Sir Les Patterson, released a version of the song on the 1985 LP 12 Inches of Les.

In 1990, country novelty musician Ray Stevens produced a comedic version of the song. After a conventional balladic first verse with piano and strings, a Foghorn Leghorn character breaks in demanding "a little fire in it!" Stevens launches into an upbeat "hillbilly" bluegrass tempo, interspersing each line with mocking jokes of those lines: the first line "Take the ribbon from your hair," is followed by a ripping sound followed by a woman yelling, Spike Jones-style, and so on. Another comedic version was recorded by novelty group Big Daddy, which was performed in the style, and with musical references to The Coasters. A parody was called "Help Me Make It Through the Yard" by Pinkard & Bowden, in which the lyrics are altered to tell about the plight of a man coming home drunk: Take the rosebush from my hair, / Lord, it has a lot of thorns, / What's the sprinkler doing on / At this hour of the morn? ...

In Austria, a German language version of the song was recorded by S.T.S.. Its title in German was "Gö, Du Bleibst Heut Nacht Bei Mir". The song was also covered by UK singer Charlie Landsborough on his 2009 album 'Nothing Lasts Forever'.

A Spanish version was recorded in Colombia in 2001 by Marco T.

Chart performance

Sammi Smith

Willie Nelson

References

External links

• Allmusic review
• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight Merald "Bubba" Knight William Guest Edward Patten Brenda Knight Eleanor Guest Langston George Chris Morante
Studio albums	Everybody Needs Love Neither One of Us Imagination I Feel a Song 2nd Anniversary The One and Only
Soundtrack albums	Claudine
Compilation albums	The Ultimate Collection
Singles	"Every Beat of My Heart" "Giving Up" "Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me" "Everybody Needs Love" "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" "The End of Our Road" "It Should Have Been Me" "I Wish It Would Rain" "The Nitty Gritty" "If I Were Your Woman" "Help Me Make It Through the Night" "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" "The Look of Love" "Midnight Train to Georgia" "I've Got to Use My Imagination" "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" "The Way We Were/Try to Remember" "Save the Overtime (For Me)" "Hero" "Love Overboard" "Baby, Don't Change Your Mind"
Related topics	Discography Aaliyah Barry Hankerson
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