The song “I Drove All Night” was originally recorded in 1987 by Roy Orbison.
The song “I Drove All Night” was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and originally recorded by the legendary Roy Orbison in 1987. Roy died in December 1988 and it was not until 1992 that the song was released as part of a posthumous collection of previously recorded material called “King Of Hearts”. It was released as a single globally and reached No.7 in the UK and charted high all over Europe as well as in Canada and Australia. It was not released in the US as a single, however, the album was and it became a huge success commercially as well as winning a Grammy Award for Orbison, one of many he had received after his sad death. A video for the single was made featuring the actors Jason Priestley and Jennifer Connolly.
Whilst all this was going on, singer Cyndi Lauper, who had worked extensively with Steinberg and Kelly, picked up the song for her 1989 album “A Night To Remember” and released it as the lead single. It reached No.6 in the US (her last top ten placing there to date) and No.7 in the UK, a chart placing that was matched by Orbison three years later with his original!
In 2003 Celine Dion recorded a dance version of the song for a Chrysler car advert and was included on her album “One Heart” later that year. Her version reached No.45 in the US and No.27 in the UK as well as topping the Canadian chart for five weeks. Billy Steinberg had previously written the title track to her enormous 1996 album “Falling Into You” (32 million copies sold worldwide) and her version was produced by Peer Åström, who later wrote and produced two songs for Lauper’s 2008 album “Bring Ya To The Brink“!
But which one is the best? ROY ORBISON’s original, CYNDI LAUPER’s cover or CELINE DION’S dance version?
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