1989 Benny Mardones – Benny Mardones

Benny Mardones is the fourth studio album from American rock and pop singer Benny Mardones, released in 1989. It was Mardones’ first release since the 1981 album Too Much to Lose after battling personal issues such as a drug addiction.

The album was Mardones’ first of two albums for Curb Records. The album was recorded and released after the successful re-issue of Mardones’ 1980 hit song “Into the Night”.

In 1989, a Where Are They Now? Arizona radio segment spurred Los Angeles DJ Scott Shannon to add the “Into the Night” song to his playlist, ultimately rocketing the song back onto the national charts, on May 6, 1989. Mardones’ recording peaked this time at #20 the first week in July (the original 1980 issue peaked at #11), adding 17 weeks to its previous run of 20, to add up to a total of 37 (non consecutive) weeks, breaking the record set by Laura Branigan with her single “Gloria”, which charted for 36 (consecutive) weeks from July 1982 to March 1983, for the longest-charting single of the 1980s by a solo artist.

Curb Records quickly signed Mardones to their label, where he re-recorded “Into the Night”, and a full album of new material soon followed. The self-titled album, or “the blue album” as referred by Mardones’ fans was released to little success, as Curb was best known for being a country label and was not able to capitalize on the success of the “Into the Night” re-issue.

The album had announced the return of Joel Diamond as Mardones’ manager. Originally, Diamond was the first man to give Mardones’ a job in the music industry and got him to start writing songs.^[2] Diamond was the album’s executive producer.

The album was the first where Mardones’ son Michael Everett Mardones is listed as a backup singer. It was produced entirely by Michael Lloyd.

For the album, Mardones mainly wrote the tracks with Mark Mangold and Duane Evans, whilst “Never Far Away” was written between Mardones, Mangold and Al Frisch. “I’ll Be Good to You” was written by Mark Spiro and Steve Kipner. Evans had previously co-wrote the track “Sheila C.” from Mardones’ 1981 album Too Much to Lose.