"Moonlight Shadow" is a song written and performed by English

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments, often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as woodwind doubler, doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and mor ...

Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...

, released as a single in May 1983 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

, and included on his eighth album, ''

Crises A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

'', of the same year. The vocals were performed by Scottish vocalist

Maggie Reilly Maggie Reilly (born 15 September 1956) is a Scottish singer best known for her collaborations with the composer and instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. Most notably, she performed lead vocals on the Oldfield songs " Family Man", " Moonlight Shadow ...

, who had collaborated with Mike Oldfield since 1980. It is Oldfield's most successful single, reaching number one on numerous charts around Europe. In the UK, it reached number four during a nineteen-week chart run and was subsequently listed by the

Official Charts Company The Official UK Charts Company Limited (formerly Music Industry Chart Services Limited), trading as the Official Charts Company (OCC) or the Official Charts (formerly the Chart Information Network), is a British inter-professional organisation ...

as the 29th best-selling single of 1983.

Release

The single peaked at number four in the British charts, making it Oldfield's second-highest ranked single after "

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

", which reached number three in 1976. "Moonlight Shadow" was successful throughout Europe; it reached number one in many countries, including Italy, Austria, Switzerland for four weeks and Norway for six weeks. It spent four weeks at number two in West Germany, reached number six in Australia, and peaked at number three in New Zealand and France. It was re-released as a maxi-CD single in 1993 to promote Oldfield's '' Elements''

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

, charting at number 52. A

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compa ...

(later reissued on a 3" CD single) featured an extended version of the song with an extra verse. The extended mix also appears on his compilation album '' The Platinum Collection''. Both the 7 inch and 12 inch singles featured the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Rite of Man", which was a rare instance of Oldfield singing lead vocal. In 1991, the song was re-released in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and in 1993 it was featured on promos for '' Elements'' in France and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The 1993 reissue included "Bones" and "In the Pool" as B-sides, which had previously been released as B-sides with "

To France "To France" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1984. It is from the album ''Discovery'' and features Maggie Reilly on vocals. The musical theme used in "To France" was also used on the first track on side two of the ''Discovery' ...

". Furthermore, the name of the song was used for the 2013

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

compilation album of Oldfield's music, '' Moonlight Shadow: The Collection''.

Live performances

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 Anita Hegerland (born 3 March 1961 in Sandefjord) is a Norwegian singer, most known for her childhood career in Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and subsequent vocal contributions to Mike Oldf ...

during the late 1980s, Pepsi Demacque at the ''Tubular Bells III'' premiere and at the Live Then & Now 1999 tour,

Miriam Stockley Miriam Arlene Stockley (born 15 April 1962) is a South African singer. She was born in Johannesburg, and her work is influenced by the Music of Africa, African music of her home country. Her distinctive ''vocal warm up#Vocalise, vocalise'' style ...

at the Millennium concert and Nokia Night of the Proms in Germany, and Rosa Cedrón at Nokia Night of the Proms in Spain. In 2020 Maggie Reilly released an updated version where she is the vocalist.

Artwork

The original cover art is an enlargement of the lower right corner of the ''Crises'' album cover by UK artist Terry Ilott. This shows a man with his foot on a ledge with the sea and sky in the background. The moon, the tower and its shadow from the album cover cannot be seen on the single cover. The artwork for the 1993 reissue followed the style of the ''Elements'' artwork in most countries.

Production

An early version of the song was entitled "Midnight Passion" with vocals by British singer

Hazel O'Connor Hazel Thereasa O'Connor (born 16 May 1954) is a British singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles " Eighth Day", " D-Days" and " Will You?" She also starred in the 1980 film '' Breaking Glass''. Caree ...

. Along with Maggie Reilly, a girlfriend 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 bassist

Phil Spalding Philip Trevor Spalding (19 November 1957 – 5 February 2023) was an English bass player. He was best known as a session musician and player of Fender Precision Bass guitars. He played and appeared with performing artists such as Mike Oldfiel ...

the initial tracks recorded simultaneously for "Moonlight Shadow" were acoustic guitar (Oldfield), bass (Spalding), drums (Phillips) and electric guitar (

Tim Renwick Timothy John Pearson Renwick (born 7 August 1949) is an English guitarist. He is best known for his association with Al Stewart in his early career and for his long-standing role as lead guitarist for the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. His single ...

) in early February 1983 at Oldfield's studio in

Denham, Buckinghamshire Denham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, approximately 17 mi from central London, 2 mi northwest of Uxbridge and just north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. The name is derived from the Old En ...

. Renwick's guitar track was apparently not used in the final track. The remaining tracks including the vocals and Oldfield on electric guitar were later overdubs. According to Oldfield,

were immediately happy with the song and wanted more pieces similar to it. Reilly also sang on " Foreign Affair" on ''Crises''. An unplugged mix of the song appears on the 2013

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

reissue of the ''Crises'' album. Oldfield later

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: * Sample (graphics), an intersection of a color channel and a pixel * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of something * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample ...

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

Lyrical content

It has been suggested that the lyrics of the song are a reference to the

murder of John Lennon On the evening of 8 December 1980, the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. The killer, Mark David Chapman, was an American Beatles fa ...

, despite the fact that the events in the song do not correspond with those of Lennon's murder. Lennon was shot four times just before 11 pm, whereas in the song the time is 4 am and the number of shots is six. Also, the night Lennon was shot (8 December 1980) was a

new moon In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar eclipse. ...

, so there was no

moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. History The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was aware that "''the sun provides the moon with its ...

, and in the song, it is Saturday night, while Lennon was killed on a Monday night. When asked whether "Moonlight Shadow" is a reference to John Lennon's murder in a 1995 interview, Oldfield responded: The song's closing verse, ‘Caught in the middle of a hundred and five, the night was heavy and the air was alive’ left many people confused regarding its meaning. Oldfield explained on his website in 1995, "Well, it was a hundred and five people, just signifying a large amount of people, and presumably it was a hundred and five rather than a hundred and four or whatever because ‘five’ rhymed with the next line!" In the extended version of the song, there is a final verse with several extra lines, one of which was ‘The crowd gathered just to leave him’. This helps explain where the large amount of people fit into the song.

Video

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 was for the requirements of some TV broadcasters, and the way both versions are edited suggests that Oldfield's touring guitarist "Ant" (Anthony Glynne) performs the second,

overdriven Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly ...

half of the guitar solo, which is not the case. Also in the video is Oldfield's touring drummer,

Pierre Moerlen Pierre Moerlen (23 October 1952, Colmar, Haut-Rhin – 3 May 2005, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, near Strasbourg) was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with Gong and Mike Oldfield and as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Biography Pie ...

, miming the part played by Simon Phillips on the recording. The music video was directed by Keith McMillan and shot on location at

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a Grade I listed English country house, country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean architecture, Jacobean hous ...

and

Brocket Hall Brocket Hall is a Neoclassical architecture, neo-classical English country house, country house set in a large park at the western side of the urban area of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. The estate is equipped with two golf cour ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England (the band are seen performing in Brocket Hall's ballroom and the girl, played by

Francesca Gonshaw Francesca Gonshaw (born 25 November 1959) is an English former actress who appeared in television, theatre and cinema productions in the 1980s. From 1982 to 1987, she appeared as Maria Recamier in the BBC's Allo 'Allo!'' television situati ...

, runs in through the door and up the staircase in Brocket's hallway).

Track listing

* 7-inch vinyl # "Moonlight Shadow" (7" mix) – 3:37 # "Rite of Man" – 2:21 * 12-inch vinyl # "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 5:18 # "Rite of Man" – 2:21 * West German vinyl # "Moonlight Shadow" – 3:37 # "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 5:18 # "Rite of Man" – 2:21 # "To France" – 4:43 # "Jungle Gardenia" – 2:45 # "Taurus 3" – 2:25 * 1988 CD # "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 5:18 # "Rite of Man" – 2:21 # "

" – 4:44 # "Jungle Gardenia" – 2:44 * 1993 CD # "Moonlight Shadow" – 3:35 # "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 5:18 # "In the Pool"* – 3:40 # "Bones"* – 3:19 (*: original B-sides for the 1984 "

" single)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Appearances and influence in other media

"Moonlight Shadow" appeared on the soundtrack of the Italian comedy '' Vacanze di Natale'' (1983). It is also the theme song for Dave Angel, Eco-Warrior, a character in the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

TV comedy series ''

The Fast Show ''The Fast Show'', also known as ''Brilliant'' in the United States, is a BBC comedy sketch show that ran on BBC Two, BBC 2 from 1994 to 1997, with specials in 2000 and 2014. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Si ...

''.

Groove Coverage version

In 2002, a cover by Groove Coverage peaked at No. 3 in the German Top 10 (simultaneously, a similar version of Oldfield's "

" by Novaspace was in the German Top 30). "Moonlight Shadow" appeared on Groove Coverage's debut album, ''

Covergirl CoverGirl is an American cosmetics brand founded in Maryland, United States, by the Noxzema Chemical Company. It was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1989, and later acquired by Coty, Inc. in 2016. The Noxell Company advertised this cosmetics l ...

''. The vocals are by Melanie Munch, who is known by her stage name Mell. Aside from the single remixes, the album also contains a piano version, featuring piano by

Verena Rehm Verena Carmen Rehm (born 14 May 1984) is a German musician best known as the backing vocalist and pianist of the Eurodance Eurodance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in ...

Track listings

CD single

#"Moonlight Shadow" (Radio version) – 2:52 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Original radio edit) – 2:54 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 6:56 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Rocco remix) – 6:58 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Warp Brothers remix) – 7:37 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Video) – 2:53

Maxi single

#"Moonlight Shadow" (Radio version) – 2:52 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Original radio edit) – 2:59 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 6:58 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Rocco remix) – 6:58 #"Beat Just Goes" – 3:53

Remix single

A-side #"Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) B-side #"Moonlight Shadow" (Club version) #"Beat Just Goes" (Club mix)

US maxi single

#"Moonlight Shadow" (Josh Harris Radio Edit) – 3:46 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Josh Harris Club Mix) – 7:21 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Josh Harris Dub) – 6:39 #"Moonlight Shadow" (French Club Mix) – 6:36 #"Moonlight Shadow" (French Short Cut) – 3:05 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Plastic Men UK Mix) – 6:16 #"Moonlight Shadow" ( Warp Brothers Remix) – 7:36 #"Moonlight Shadow" (North Starz Remix) – 6:57 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Alternate Radio Version) – 2:51 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Original Mix) – 2:53 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Extended Mix) – 6:54 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Rocco Remix) – 6:56 #"Moonlight Shadow" (A cappella) – 1:50 #"Moonlight Shadow" (Pure & Direct Version) – 4:17

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* * * {{authority control 1983 songs 1983 singles 1993 singles 2002 singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Groove Coverage songs Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Maggie Reilly songs Mike Oldfield songs Murder ballads Songs about death Songs about ghosts Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Italy Number-one singles in Norway Number-one singles in Spain Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Songs written by Mike Oldfield Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles Virgin Records singles

Release

Live performances

Artwork

Production

Lyrical content

Video

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Appearances and influence in other media

Groove Coverage version

Track listings

CD single

Maxi single

Remix single

US maxi single

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

See also

References

External links