Ruben Armand "Benny" Mardones (November 9, 1946 – June 29, 2020) was an American pop/rock singer and songwriter who was best known for his hit single "Into the Night", which hit the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart twice, in 1980 (#11) and again in 1989 (#20).
Benny Mardones was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Ruben Sr., who was originally from Santiago, Chile, left the family when Benny was an infant and returned to Chile. Mardones had a sister, two half-brothers, and two half-sisters who live in Chile.
Mardones grew up in Savage, Maryland, and graduated from Howard High School in Ellicott City, Maryland in 1964. His show business debut was an Elvis Presley impersonation at a Fourth of July talent show in his Maryland hometown before performing regularly with the same back-up group at local high school dances and fire halls. He joined the U.S. Navy after high school and served in the Vietnam War. After his discharge, he moved to New York City to pursue his singing and songwriting career, and composed several songs with writing partner Alan Miles.
Mardones began his career as a songwriter, writing songs for people like Brenda Lee and Chubby Checker. He demoed the songs he wrote, and Tommy Mottola suggested that he record his own songs; from that point he wrote and recorded over 100 songs. Mardones's band was called the Hurricanes. He was signed as a performer to White Whale Records, then Columbia, hooking up with The Sound of Philadelphia arranger Bobby Martin for the single, “And Tomorrow Means Another Day We’re Apart.”
Rolling Stones manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham hooked Mardones up with guitarist Mick Ronson and Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley for a series of recording sessions that were never released. But Mardones began attracting attention when he opened for Richie Havens, including an outdoor rally on Wall Street for close to 100,000, where he caught the eye of concert promoter Ron Delsener, who asked if he could fill in at Madison Square Garden as the opening act for Peter Frampton.
Mardones co-wrote the 1980 soft rock hit "Into the Night" with Robert Tepper. The track was featured on his second album Never Run, Never Hide, and peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum. Its success catapulted Mardones into the limelight, but he spiraled into substance abuse that resulted in his being dropped by his label Polydor Records. Though he eventually overcame his addiction, Mardones produced no other hits during his career. In a TV interview on KTLA a while before his death, Mardones recalled how the song was inspired by a conversation between him and co-author Robert Tepper, after seeing a 16-year-old neighbour take Benny's dog for a walk.
"Into the Night" charted a second time in 1989 when Phoenix, Arizona radio station KZZP ran a segment titled "Where Are They Now?", and Scott Shannon, then-program director for Pirate Radio in Los Angeles, added "Into the Night" to its playlist. Other stations across the country followed suit and "Into the Night" was a hit once more, peaking at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Curb Records signed Mardones and he recorded "Into the Night '89", The track appeared on his self-titled release that year.
Though his subsequent releases like 1996's Most Requested Songs and 1999's Angel didn't have quite the same chart impact as his breakthrough single, Mardones earned a strong, devoted following for his raspy voice and down-to-earth songwriting. Mardones reciprocated this affection, often visiting and performing for terminally ill fans. Indeed, his song "Bless a Brand New Angel" was written for a young fan who succumbed to cancer; this emotional, spiritual quality imbued Mardones' later work like Angel with a new resonance. In 2002, the singer issued Journey Through Time, a collective of new recordings of originals and covers that were important to him in his career and were intended to be a soundtrack to a film about his life. In 2006, after nearly a seven-year break from new material, Let's Hear It for Love was released on Warrior Records.
Mardones was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000, but continued to tour and perform until the mid-2010s. On October 4, 2011, Mardones married his third wife, Jane Braemer, who was originally from Denmark. He announced his retirement during a concert in New York City in 2017. In July 2018, he underwent deep brain stimulation to reduce his motor symptoms, but complications from multiple surgeries resulted in coordination issues that led to repeated falls and hip injuries. He died at his home in Menifee, California, at age 73 from complications of the disease on June 29, 2020.
(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Variety)