“The Music of the Night” was one of a number of songs recorded by Steve Harley and produced by Mike Batt for The Phantom of the Opera musical in 1986. The song was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Harley’s version has never been officially released, but the full recording surfaced on the internet in 2024.
Background
In 1984, Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh began working on the Phantom of the Opera musical. As its development progressed in 1985, Lloyd Webber decided that releasing the title track as a pop single would be a good way of promoting the upcoming musical and “test[ing] the water” in terms of public reception. He stressed that he wanted the song to have a rock ‘n’ roll sound and wished to use a rock singer for the part of the Phantom on the track. Producer Mike Batt recommended Harley, who successfully auditioned and sang the duet with Sarah Brightman. The song was released as a single in January 1986 and reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
Following its success, Harley was the prime candidate for the role of the Phantom in the musical and was successful in his audition for it. He then spent five months rehearsing under producer Hal Prince. As the style of singing was different to what he had done before and to train his voice to cope with the demands of the musical, Harley also took singing lessons. During this period, Harley recorded a number of other tracks from the musical, including “The Music of the Night” and “All I Ask of You”, for a proposed soundtrack album release. These recordings were ultimately shelved and Harley himself was replaced in the musical by Michael Crawford, days before the cast were due to be announced to the public. He received £20,000 compensation and Batt’s association with the musical also came to an end during the same period, with the producers negotiating an exit deal with him.
In his 2024 autobiography The Closest Thing to Crazy, Batt stated, “In my opinion, despite being an amazing actor and performer, Michael Crawford was never as strong a choice as Steve Harley. His polite and ‘careful’ delivery of the material on record and on stage was worlds apart from the passion and strength that Steve would have brought to the part. Steve’s rendition of ‘Music of the Night’ was delicate, hurt, impassioned and at the same time, full of love, drama and danger. I can’t call his replacement a mistake, because look how successful the production has been through the years! But artistically, I thought it was a mistake.”
Harley later referenced the song in his song “The Last Feast”, which he recorded with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel for the album The Quality of Mercy, released in 2005: “Out here on the terrace, there’s a terrible sight/Mandolin players playing ‘Music of the Night’”.
Release
Over the years, Harley’s version of “The Music of the Night” drew interest from both Steve Harley and Phantom of the Opera fans. A snippet of the recording was played in the 2006 documentary Behind the Mask, but the full version remained unreleased. At some stage, Harley, who had the 1986 recordings on cassette in his private collection, gave a copy of the tracks to music journalist and broadcaster Billy Sloan. After Harley’s passing on 17 March 2024, Sloan produced a tribute show on BBC Radio Scotland, which was broadcast on 23 March 2024. The show included the full recording of “The Music of the Night”, which then circulated within Harley’s fan base and then surfaced on YouTube on 1 August 2024.
