4 Magnificent “Moonlight” Songs for a Summer Night

Are you one of those people who find the moonlight to be entrancing? Well, plenty of songwriters certainly have that opinion of the phenomenon. Many amazing artists have sung the praises of that one-of-a-kind glow.

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To prove our point, we’ve assembled four special songs that use the word “moonlight” in the title. We’re betting you can come up with many more good ones on your end.

“Moonlight Mile” by The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones didn’t release “Moonlight Mile” as a single, which makes it a bit obscure to casual fans. But true Stones believers know how much punch this one packs, even as one of the slower and more melancholy songs in the band’s catalog. It closes out Sticky Fingers, arguably the band’s finest album. Interestingly enough, Keith Richards doesn’t play on the track. Instead, Mick Jagger, on lead vocals, engages in a tantalizing dance with Mick Taylor on guitar, Charlie Watts on drums, and the string arrangement of Paul Buckmaster. This musically ambitious track also features some of Jagger’s loveliest lyrics, as his life on the road transforms home into an elusive dream.

“Moonlight Motel” by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen keeps himself engaged from an artistic standpoint by taking occasional detours from straight-ahead rock and roll every now and again. The album Western Stars, released in 2019, represents one of Springsteen’s finest stylistic shifts. Musically, the best reference would be the country-pop ballads written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Glen Campbell in the 60s. On “Moonlight Motel”, the album’s closing track, Springsteen mines a level of eloquent pathos that hearkens back to Webb. The titular establishment is deeply connected to the narrator’s happiest memories. In its current state, however, it’s as decrepit as the narrator’s hopes.

“Moonlight” by Bob Dylan

On his 2001 album “Love And Theft”, Bob Dylan wanted to take listeners back to another era. Many of the song structures took on an old-timey feel. But Dylan and his band pumped such life into them that they practically crackled in the moment. “Moonlight”, one of that LP’s more underrated tracks, trips along lightly while Dylan rattles off lyrics as if he were tackling a Cole Porter song. He sings of a “mystic glow,” and the music seems to conjure it for him. When he asks, “Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?” the romance of the words and music makes it a tough request to deny.

“Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest

The three songs on this list so far might not be so well-known other than to rabid fans. But you can find “Dancing In The Moonlight” with regularity on a number of different oldies formats. It represents the biggest hit by far and away of the band King Harvest. A few members of that group first recorded it with Boffalongo in 1970. They wisely returned to it a few years later when they joined up with King Harvest. It’s the ultimate good-time song, ironic because songwriter Sherman Kelly wrote it after he was mugged. This one brings the happy vibes all the way, suggesting that the moonlight is the best time to cut loose and enjoy life.

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