Help Me Make It Through the Night — how Kris Kristofferson’s 1970 classic was inspired by Frank Sinatra
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For a decade or so everyone sang “Help Me Make It Through the Night”. It was a country song — well, at least a countryish song — so naturally country stars sang it. But it became a reggae song and a soul song. It was sung by light entertainers and actors (not necessarily the straightforward kind of actor — Harry Dean Stanton and Nicol Williamson were among them). It inspired parody versions. It was translated into other languages — the website SecondHandSongs lists recordings in 18.
What’s most surprising is who didn’t sing it: Frank Sinatra. Not only was it a song that could have been made for his voice and his persona, it was even inspired by him. Interviewed in Playboy in 1963, Sinatra was asked if he believed in God. “I don’t believe in a personal God to whom I look for comfort,” he replied. “I’m not unmindful of man’s seeming need for faith; I’m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquillisers or a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.”
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The paperback edition of ‘The Life of a Song: The stories behind 100 of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Chambers
Music credits: Sony; Rhino; Jon Mat; Columbia; Universal; Virgin; Sanctuary; Parlophone; RCA; Hickman Holler; Masterworks
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