On June 22, 2003, This Is The Night by Clay Aiken was #1 on the Billboard Top 100 list.
But, we could say that for many days. I mean, Clay’s This Is The Night spent 11 weeks at #1.
This Is The Night was the first single released by Clay Aiken. He sang it first on the May 20, 2003 episode of American Idol.
This Is The Night was a new song. It was written by Chris Braide, Aldo Nova and Gary Burr. Sadly, the song didn’t go over well with the judges. Both Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell thought Clay sang well, but were very critical of the song.
This song was released as a single on June 3, 2003 and the song debuted at #1. Clay became the first artist to go straight to #1 on the Hot 100 with a debut single. The song sold 393,000 in one week and became the best-selling single of 2003. It was also the fastest-selling single since Elton John’s Candle In The Wind in 1997.
This Is The Night was not written specifically for American Idol. According to Chris Braide, the song was written after the September 11, 2001 attacks and is about appreciating your loved ones and treasuring the time you have together.
CLAY AIKEN’S ‘NIGHT’ VIDEO SAYS ‘THIS IS THE SOUL’
MATTHEW ROLSTON’S CLIP INSPIRED BY SPLIT SECOND THAT OCCURRED DURING EARLIER PHOTO SHOOT.
The shining moment from Clay Aiken’s photo session for Rolling Stone came accidentally, when photographer Matthew Rolston caught the singer looking away while he changed lenses.
Rolston told Aiken not to move and snapped a picture that not only became their favorite in the magazine, it served as inspiration for the “American Idol 2” runner-up’s video for his first single, “This Is the Night.”
“He’s a very soulful artist, and I think that comes from someplace within, and somehow the moment of that photograph seems to convey it,” explained Rolston, who directed the video Thursday. “It just was a moment.”…
…”My visuals don’t illustrate the subject of the song; they are all about getting you a portrait of this new young performer,” he said…
You can read the rest of the article at MTV-CLAY
What I recall is that Clay was very disappointed in the video and it was not released with the song. Fortunately, the song didn’t need a video!! The video is now on YouTube.
WOW!! It’s been a long time since I thought about This Is The Night.
It really was an exciting time!!
