He attended a school for the blind in Little Rock, Arkansas where he joined… Read Full Bio ↴He attended a school for the blind in Little Rock, Arkansas where he joined the school choir. He won an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Tennessee and at first worked with local bands, as well as starting a band of his own. In 1942 he joined a band led by Jay McShann, and the next year he joined Duke Ellington's band, replacing Herb Jeffries. He worked eight years with Ellington before becoming a soloist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is really best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music.

His biggest hit was "Unchained Melody" in 1955. Other hits were "He", "11th Hour Melody", "Never Turn Back", and "After the Lights Go Low" (all in 1956). "After the Lights Go Low", sung with a put-on British accent, was his last charted hit.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Hibbler became a civil rights activist, marching with protestors and getting arrested in 1959 in New Jersey and in 1963 in Alabama. The notoriety of this activism discouraged major record labels from carrying his work, but Frank Sinatra supported him and signed him to a contract with his label, [lable]Reprise Records.

However, Hibbler made very few recordings after that, occasionally doing live appearances through the 1990s. He died in April 2001 in Chicago.

Night And Day
Al Hibbler Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Like the beat, beat, beat,
Of the tom-tom;
When the jungle shadows fall,
Like the tick, tick, tock
Of the stately clock,
As it stands against the wall,
Like the drip, drip, drip,
Of the raindrops,

When the summer show'r is through;
So a voice within me
Keeps repeating,
You, you, you

Night and day
You are the one,
Only you
Beneath the moon
And under the sun.
Whether near to me or far,
It's no matter,
Darling, where you are
I think of you
Night and day.

Day and night
Why is it so,
That this longing for you follows
Where-ever I go?
In the roaring traffic's boom,
In the silence of my lonely room,
I think of you,
Night and day.

Night and day
Under the hide of me
There's an
Oh, such a hungry yearning,
Burning inside of me.
And its torment won't be through
Til you let me spend my life
Making love to you,

Day and night,
Night and day.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Al Hibbler's "Night and Day" refer to the all-consuming, overwhelming feeling of love for someone day and night, whether near or far. The song starts off with a comparison between the beat of a tom-tom in the jungle, the tick-tock of a clock, and the drip of raindrops to the voice within the singer that keeps repeating "you, you, you." This underlines the idea that the singer cannot escape the feeling of love for this person, even in the simple rhythms that surround their life.

The lyrics then move on to the title phrase, "Night and day, you are the one," emphasizing that the feeling of love is all-consuming and all-encompassing. It doesn't matter where the person is, whether near or far, they are still the one the singer thinks of constantly. The second verse deepens this obsession and longing, as the singer says that they cannot escape thoughts of this person even in the midst of constant noise and activity or in total silence. The final section pushes this desire to its limit, with the singer saying that their love is so strong that it is a "hungry yearning, burning inside" that won't be satisfied until they can spend their life making love to this person night and day.

Overall, the lyrics of "Night and Day" reveal the all-consuming nature of love and the way that it can permeate a person's entire being, becoming an unshakeable part of them.

Line by Line Meaning

Like the beat, beat, beat, Of the tom-tom;
Similar to the rhythmic sound of a tom-tom, a voice within me keeps repeating.

When the jungle shadows fall, Like the tick, tick, tock Of the stately clock, As it stands against the wall,
Similar to the sound of a clock ticking against a wall when the jungle shadows fall, I can hear a voice inside me repeating.

Like the drip, drip, drip, Of the raindrops, When the summer show'r is through;
Similar to the sound of raindrops dripping after a summer shower, a voice within me keeps repeating.

So a voice within me Keeps repeating, You, you, you
A voice inside me keeps repeating the word 'you'.

Night and day You are the one, Only you Beneath the moon And under the sun.
Day or night, you are the one I think of, the only one that matters to me, always.

Whether near to me or far, It's no matter, Darling, where you are I think of you Night and day.
It does not matter if you are close or far away, I am always thinking of you day and night.

Day and night Why is it so, That this longing for you follows Where-ever I go?
I am constantly longing for you, day and night, and this feeling follows me everywhere I go.

In the roaring traffic's boom, In the silence of my lonely room, I think of you, Night and day.
Whether in the noise of traffic or in the silence of my lonely room, I am always thinking of you day and night.

Night and day Under the hide of me There's an Oh, such a hungry yearning, Burning inside of me.
Deep within me, there is a strong, hungry yearning and burning for you day and night.

And its torment won't be through Til you let me spend my life Making love to you, Day and night, Night and day.
This torment will not end until you allow me to spend my life making love to you day and night.

Lyrics © Roba Music Verlag GMBH, Red Brick Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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