Moonlight Shadow

"Moonlight Shadow"
Single by Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly
from the album Crises
B-side	"Rite of Man"
Released	6 May 1983 (1983-05-06)
Format	7-inch vinyl 12-inch vinyl
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:37
Label	Virgin Records
Writer(s)	Mike Oldfield
Producer	Mike Oldfield Simon Phillips
Mike Oldfield chronology
"Mistake" (1982) "Moonlight Shadow" (1983) "Shadow on the Wall" (1983)
Music sample Moonlight Shadow

"Moonlight Shadow"
Single by Mike Oldfield
from the album Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield
Released	September 1993
Format	Maxi-CD
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:37
Label	Virgin Records
Writer(s)	Mike Oldfield
Producer	Mike Oldfield Simon Phillips
Mike Oldfield singles chronology
"The Bell" (1993) "Moonlight Shadow" (reissue) (1993) "In Dulci Jubilo" (reissue) (1993)

"Moonlight Shadow" is a pop song written by English 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. It has been his most successful single to date, with Tubular Bells being his most successful album worldwide.

Release

The single peaked at number 4 in the British charts, making it Oldfield's second highest ranked single after "Portsmouth" which reached number 3 in 1976. "Moonlight Shadow" was successful throughout Europe, It reached number 1 in countries including Italy, Austria, Switzerland for four weeks and Norway for six weeks. It spent four weeks at number 2 in Germany and also hit number 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.

In 1991 the song was re-released in France and in 1993, it was featured on promos for Elements in France and Spain.

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 (during the late 1980s), Pepsi Demacque (at the Tubular Bells III premiere and at the Live Then & Now '99 tour), Miriam Stockley (at the Millennium concert) and Rosa Cedrón (at Nokia Night of the Proms).

The original cover art is an enlargement of the lower right corner of the Crises album cover. 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.

Production

An early version of the song was entitled "Midnight Passion" with vocals by British singer Hazel O'Connor.^[1] 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.^[2] According to Oldfield, Virgin Records were immediately happy with the song and wanted more pieces similar to it. Reilly also sang on "Foreign Affair" Crises.

Oldfield later sampled the drums from "Moonlight Shadow" for the song "Man in the Rain" on his 1998 album, Tubular Bells III.^[3]

Lyrical content

There was a long running urban myth (largely fuelled by the tabloid press) that the lyrics are a reference to the murder of John Lennon, despite the fact Lennon was murdered just before 11pm whereas the time stated in the lyric is 4am. Also, he was shot four times, not six.

When asked about the rumour in a 1995 interview, Oldfield responded:

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.

—Mike Oldfield, Gareth Randall Interviews Mike Oldfield

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.

Video

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 was for the requirements of some TV broadcasters, and the way both versions are edited suggests that Oldfield's touring guitarist "Ant" performed the second, overdriven half of the guitar solo, which is not the case. Also in the video is Oldfield's touring drummer, Pierre Moerlen, miming the part played by Simon Phillips on the recording..

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

German vinyl

1. "Moonlight Shadow" – 3:37
2. "Moonlight Shadow" (Extended version) – 5:18
3. "Rite of Man" – 2:21
4. "To France" – 4:43
5. "Jungle Gardenia" – 2:45 (Mike Oldfield)
6. "Taurus 3" – 2:25

1988 CD

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

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

Personnel

• Mike Oldfield: guitars, Fairlight CMI, writer, producer
• Maggie Reilly: vocals
• Rick Fenn: guitar
• Phil Spalding: bass guitar
• Simon Phillips: drums, producer

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 8 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".

Other versions include:

• In 1990 as part of their Plays Synthesizer World Hits album the Italian spacesynth band Koto covered a instrumental version of "Moonlight Shadow" using electronic synthesisers.
• 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.
• Frérérique covered the track on their Irish Ties album.
• German band X-Perience have also covered "Moonlight Shadow" in 2003. It was a planned single (including remixes by DJs@Work) for 2006, but their record label changed this plan and this version remain unreleased.
• Juliane Werding released a German-language version of the song, titled "Nacht Voll Schatten".
• In 1997, a dance version of the song was produced by Missing Heart.
  • A techno remix of the Missing Heart cover was also released by DJ Mystik.
• 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.
• Ukrainian singer Ruslana covered the song in 1998 for a live radio performance.
• Serbian punk rock band KBO! recorded a version on their 2001 cover album (Ne) Menjajte Stanicu ((Do Not) Change the Station).
• The British band Renaissance covered the song on the 2002 live album In the Land of the Rising Sun, and the song is also featured on the Renaissance vocalist Annie Haslam's solo album Annie Haslam.
• German gothic rock band Elane had a ballad version on their album The Fire of Glenvore in 2004.
• Italian power metal band Skylark also covered the song on their 2005 album Fairytales.
• Russian power metal band Miriada did a Russian language cover version on their 2006 album Иллюзия Любви (Illusion of Love) entitled "В Свете Лунной Тени" (Literally "In light of the lunar shadow").
• 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.
• In 2007 hardcore group Noize Incorporated also covered the song for their 2007 album Mutilation.
• In 2008 on his album Recollection French pop singer Laurent Voulzy covered "Moonlight Shadow" in the medley track "Jukebox".
• In 2009 Finnish heavy metal band Deathlike Silence covered the song for their album Saturday Night Evil.
• In 2009, the original singer, Maggie Reilly recorded another version of the song for her album Looking Back Moving Forward.
• Also in 2009, Argentinean singer and composer Marcela Morelo adapted the lyrics to Spanish and recorded it for her album Otro Plan.

Groove Coverage cover

"Moonlight Shadow"
Single by Groove Coverage
from the album Covergirl
Released	2002
Format	12" single CD Single, Maxi
Genre	Eurodance
Label	Zeitgeist (Universal) Suprime:Music
Groove Coverage singles chronology
"Are U Ready" (2002) "Moonlight Shadow" (2002) "God is a Girl" (2002)

In 2002 a dance version of "Moonlight Shadow" 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). "Moonlight Shadow" appeared on Groove Coverage's Covergirl album.

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)

US maxi single

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

Chart positions

References

External links

• Mike Oldfield Discography - Crises at Tubular.net