Right Time of The Night - Background

Background

"Right Time of the Night" came to the fore in 1976 when Peter McCann recorded his composition for his self-titled album. McCann had in fact written the song several years previously; he was then working as a staff writer for ABC Records who in 1972 released a single version of "Right Time of the Night" by a pre-stardom John Travolta.

The tracks intended to comprise the completed album Jennifer Warnes, which Warnes presented to her label Arista Records did not include "Right Time of the Night". Arista president Clive Davis would later tell Billboard: "if a Jennifer Warnes submits an album which is great but lacks a hit single I and my a&r staff will say: 'Listen you need a hit. Because you're not really going to break off FM airplay...So we gave her 'Right Time of the Night'." Warnes had recorded the original tracks for the Jennifer Warnes album with producer Jim Price; for Warnes' recording of "Right Time of the Night" Davis brought in Jim Ed Norman to produce, with Norman also producing "I'm Dreaming" which was another track added to Warnes' album on the basis of its having hit potential. Warnes recalled, "Clive picked 'I'm Dreaming' and 'Right Time of the Night', and he brought in Jim Ed Norman, who arranges strings for the Eagles, to give those songs very explicit tracks." "Right Time of the Night" was remixed by Val Garay.

The second verse of the song as written by McCann was rewritten for Warnes' recording as it was felt the original lyric had too masculine a resonance. Warnes wrote a new lyric for the second verse herself which McCann rejected to eventually write a new second verse for Warnes' version himself. Prior to the release of Warnes' version of "Right Time of the Night", Bette Midler expressed an interest in recording the song but asked that the bridge be reworked, a stipulation McCann was still working on when Warnes' version reached the charts at which point work on a Midler version was dropped.