"Children of the Night" is a song written and recorded by Richard Marx, issued as the sixth and final single from his second album Repeat Offender.[2] The song peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990,[3] and was written in support of the suburban Los Angeles (Van Nuys)-based organization for runaways.[4][5][6]
| "Children of the Night" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| SinglebyRichard Marx | ||||
| from the album Repeat Offender | ||||
| B-side | "Real World"[1] | |||
| Released | 1990 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Soft rock | |||
| Length | 4:43 (album version) 4:10 (single version) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Marx | |||
| Producer(s) |
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| Richard Marx singles chronology | ||||
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In a 2018 interview with Songfacts, Marx said:
I was in a hotel room on tour, and I was watching 60 Minutes. There was a piece on this woman, Dr Lois Lee, who created the Children of the Night foundation, and I was just riveted by the story. The next day, I had my manager reach out to Dr Lee. We got on the phone, and I said, "I want to help. I also think that there is a song here. But I can't remotely write this without really researching it." So, when I got off the road, she connected me with three or four of the kids that had been sheltered by the foundation, and had been on the streets – had been prostitutes, drug addicts, in rehab – and had their lives together. I spent a couple of days just hanging out with these kids, and they were very generous with telling me what their lives had been like. So, I wrote the lyric based upon the conversations I had with these kids. And immediately, I knew the only right thing to do was to make all of the proceeds from the song go to the foundation. Luckily, the song was a pretty big hit, and the money generated from it built a whole new shelter in Los Angeles, and I continue to support them to this day.[7]
All songs written Richard Marx and produced by Marx and David Cole.
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Year-end charts
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