TRACK #304:
Stay The Night by Vincenzo Tempera & Lucia Demasi
Attentive Shindiggers will not doubt recognize this album cover, as we’ve long used this image from Luigi Cozzi’s Paganini Horror as a banner here on Halloween Shindig cause c’mon, look at that thing!
However, we have never taken a moment to talk about that film or add any of the songs from its soundtrack. So this year, we’re gonna change all that.
What’s most interesting about that poster image is that it existed before the story for Paganini Horror was even written. It’s almost assuredly why those two actors and that awesome skeleton man never shows up in the picture.
Looking to piggyback on the imminent success of Paganini, a biopic about the legendary Violinist being helmed by actor Klaus Kinski, our producers thought “Hey! We slap the word “horror”on that shit and I think we got a winner.”
Well, they were wrong. On both accounts.
Not only was Kinski’s Paganini not a hit, but the horror iteration became a mish mash of chefs spoiling the pot. The resulting film found little success with audiences.
Horror historian Louis Paul even noted
“Nobody likes Paganini Horror, Cozzi included.”
Well, i kinda like Paganini Horror. I don’t love it, but it looks real nice, there’s a dude with a switchblade violin, Donald Pleasence gets real weird…and then there this song: there’s Stay The Night.
Now, when it comes to blatant, shameless and completely unapologetic rip-offs, I don’t know if you can pull a bigger offender than Stay The Night.
And I mean seriously. Gangster Rock may sound like China Groove, but it’s a different song. Stay The Night, the other hand, is 100% You Give Love a Bad Name.
I have to imagine that neither John Bon Jovi nor Richie Sambora have ever heard this song. That’s conceivable. Paganini Horror wasn’t busting blocks. But I have to assume that someone…anyone…who even knew them remotely, heard this song and was like “Yo, John…you gotta hear this fuckin’ thing.”
One might then assume a lawsuit of some sort would have arisen, but nothing seems to have come from it. So, I’ll just say they’ve never heard it. Or maybe they just shrugged it off like good sports, cause much like the film, I doubt this song was padding anyone’s bank account either.
The fact still remains, that unless you’ve never once heard You Give Love a Bad Name, Stay the Night is one of the most overt rip-off’s of all time.
But maybe that’s part of the joke, as their producer certainly leans into what unoriginal, rehashed bullshit the band is pumping out these days. Boy, I’ll say.
Since Switchblade Violin Man never makes good with an actual Title Track, here’s the best song Paganini Horror…a movie specifically about a band…making a video…for their new song…called Paganini Horror…which is also spray painted on the set…sigh…is cranking out.