(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All

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"(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All"
(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All - The 5th Dimension.jpg
Single by The 5th Dimension
from the album Individually and Collectively
B-side"The River Witch"
ReleasedMarch 1972
GenreSoul
Length3:10
LabelBell
Songwriter(s)Tony Macaulay
Producer(s)Bones Howe
The 5th Dimension singles chronology
"Together Let's Find Love"
(1971) 		"(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All"
(1972) 		"If I Could Reach You"
(1972)

"(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All" is a song written by Tony Macaulay and performed by The 5th Dimension with instrumental backing from L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Crew.[1] In the United States, the song reached #2 on the adult contemporary chart, #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and #28 on the R&B chart in 1972.[2] The song appeared on the band's album Individually and Collectively,[3] produced by Bones Howe and arranged by Bill Holman.[4] It became the group's fifth and final platinum record. In Canada, it spent a week at #6 on the RPM 100 in July 1972.

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.[5]

The lead vocals on the 5th Dimension’s recording are performed by Marilyn McCoo.

Other versions[]

References[]

  1. ^ Hartman, Kent (2012). The Wrecking Crew. St. Martin’s Griffin. pp. 261–263. ISBN 978-1-250-03046-7.
  2. ^ The 5th Dimension, "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All" Chart Positions Retrieved December 23, 2013
  3. ^ The 5th Dimension, Individually and Collectively Retrieved December 23, 2013
  4. ^ The 5th Dimension, "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All" Single Release Retrieved December 23, 2013
  5. ^ "Gary James' Interview With Songwriter Tony Macaulay". ClassicBands.com. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  6. ^ Vikki Carr, The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) Retrieved December 23, 2013
  7. ^ Johnny Mathis, The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) Retrieved December 23, 2013
  8. ^ The Reels, Beautiful Retrieved December 23, 2013
  9. ^ Guys 'n' Dolls, Singles Retrieved December 23, 2013


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