"The Nights" is a song by Swedish DJ and record producer

Avicii Tim Bergling (; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii (, ), was a Swedish DJ, remixer and music producer. At the age of 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first re ...

, featuring vocals from singer/songwriter Nicholas Furlong. On 1 December 2014, it was released as a digital download by PRMD Music and

Universal Island Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

on Avicii's '' The Days / Nights EP'', then on 11 January 2015 in the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number six on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and number one on the

UK Dance Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record s ...

. On 23 January 2015, Avicii released "The Nights (Avicii by Avicii)", his own remix of the song. The song appears on the UK version of Avicii's second studio album '' Stories'' (2015).

Background

Furlong noted that he began writing the song as an ode to his father. The inspiration for the “pirate-y fight song” sound came to him while at a bar in Ireland. Furlong sent the original idea, titled "My Father Told Me", to Arash Pournouri, Avicii's manager. Pournouri recognised an immediate draw to the track, saying that the song had that same sense of euphoria which characterises so much of Avicii's music. In an interview with

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds o ...

, Pournouri said: "It made absolute sense to work on it with Nick... vicii and I just neededto make it more 'us' and that's what edid." Like his previous hits " Wake Me Up" and "

Hey Brother "Hey Brother" is a dance song by Swedish DJ and record producer Avicii from his debut studio album, '' True'' (2013). American bluegrass singer Dan Tyminski provides vocals for the track. It was written by Avicii, Ash Pournouri, Salem Al Fak ...

", "The Nights" is a

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

song containing elements of

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

Music video

On December 15, 2014, the official music video for "The Nights" was released on YouTube. The video was produced, directed by, and stars "professional life liver"

Rory Kramer Rory Kramer is an American photographer and filmmaker best known for directing music videos and his MTV show ''Dare to Live''. Early life Kramer was raised in Tell City, Indiana. His family owns a home in Clear Lake, Indiana. Career When he w ...

, who filmed an exuberant action-packed recollection of his own life on

roller coasters A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are ...

, surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, balloon flying, making a four-door convertible out of a

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

, etc. – living a life to be remembered. As of February 2023, the music video has over 900 million views.

In popular culture

"The Nights" was featured as a part of the football game by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

, '' FIFA 15''. In 2014, SportsCenter on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

used ''The Nights'' as a song to round out the year in sports. It was also used as the Carolina Hurricanes’

goal song In sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a Scoring in association football, goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the ...

from 2015 to 2018. The song was later

interpolated In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has a n ...

by British rappers SwitchOTR and

A1 x J1 A1 x J1 (real names Phineas Waweru and Joshua Somerkun) are a British British hip hop, hip hop duo. They released their debut single "Latest Trends" in February 2021, which charted at number 2 in the UK and was remixed by Aitch (rapper), Aitc ...

in 2021 for their song "Coming For You", which peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI.

Credits and personnel

;Recording *Recorded at Foxy Studios,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

;Personnel *

Songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

– Nicholas Furlong, Gabriel Benjamin, Jordan Suecof,

John Feldmann John Feldmann (born June 29, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He serves as the lead singer/guitarist of the band Goldfinger. Early life Feldmann grew up in Saratoga, California. He started writing song ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

–

* Co-production – Arash Pournouri *

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

– Nicholas Furlong *

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

and vocal production – Zakk Cervini * Acoustic guitar –

Colin Brittain Colin Cunningham known as Colin Brittain is an American songwriter and producer signed to Warner Chappell Music. He has written and produced for acts such as Papa Roach, Hands Like Houses, Basement, Dashboard Confessional, 5 Seconds of Summ ...

* Lap steel guitar – Will Carter * Live drums – Jordan Suecof *

Additional vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

— The Mighty Riot

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nights 2014 songs 2014 singles Avicii songs Songs written by Avicii Song recordings produced by Avicii Universal Records singles Songs written by John Feldmann Songs written by Infinity (producer) Songs written by Nicholas Furlong (musician) Folktronica songs Songs about death Songs about nights Songs about nostalgia