DESCRIPTION:
From '' Treat Me Right ''
Label: Scepter Records ‎-- SM532
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1965

Tracklist
A1 Just A Little Bit
A2 One More Time
A3 Money
A4 Get Back - Instrumental
A5 The Feeling's Gone
B1 Treat Me Right
B2 Get Back - Vocal
B3 Convicted
B4 Night Train
B5 My Babe

Featuring -- The Traits

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"Night Train" is a twelve-bar blues instrumental standard first recorded by Jimmy Forrest in 1951.

Origins and development

"Night Train" has a long and complicated history.
The piece's opening riff was first recorded in 1940 by a small group led by Duke Ellington sideman Johnny Hodges under the title "That's the Blues, Old Man". Ellington used the same riff as the opening and closing theme of a longer-form composition, "Happy-Go-Lucky Local", that was itself one of four parts of his Deep South Suite.
Forrest was part of Ellington's band when it performed this composition, which has a long tenor saxophone break in the middle.
After leaving Ellington, Forrest recorded "Night Train" on United Records and had a major rhythm & blues hit.
While "Night Train" employs the same riff as the earlier recordings, it is used in a much earthier R&B setting.
Forrest inserted his own solo over a stop-time rhythm not used in the Ellington composition.
He put his own stamp on the tune, but its relation to the earlier composition is obvious.

Lyrics

Several different sets of lyrics have been set to the tune of "Night Train".
The earliest, written in 1952, are credited to Lewis P. Simpkins, the co-owner of United Records, and guitarist Oscar Washington.

Notable recordings

Jimmy Forrest's original version of "Night Train" was a #1 R&B hit in 1952.
Forrest later recorded a Spanish Tinge version titled "Night Train Mambo".
James Brown recorded "Night Train" with his band in 1961.
Originally appearing as a track on the album James Brown Presents His Band and Five Other Great Artists, it received a single release in 1962 and became a hit, charting #5 R&B and #35 Pop.
Rusty Bryant also had an R&B hit in 1952 with "All Nite Long", an uptempo version recorded live that also incorporated the riff and audience chorus from Joe Houston's "All Night Long".
A big band version recorded by Buddy Morrow and His Orchestra reached #27 on the charts, also in 1952. This version features a Morrow himself playing lead trombone and performing the classic trombone solo.
Louis Prima released a version in his album The Wildest!, released in 1957. It features Sam Butera on saxophone and begins with a "C. C. Rider" segment.
Chet Atkins performed "Night Train" as a guitar-lead big band instrumental on Teensville, 1960.
The rock and roll instrumental group The Viscounts recorded the tune twice, once in 1960 and again in 1966 in a version where they used their instruments to imitate the sound of a train.
Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson recorded "Night Train" with his trio on a 1962 album of the same name.
Bill Doggett, famous for his own instrumental "Honky Tonk", released a version of "Night Train" in 1964 as a two-part single.
The Kingsmen released a version on their 1964 LP The Kingsmen In Person.
The tune was part of the repertoire of the British rhythm and blues group Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames during their residency at the legendary Flamingo Club in London's Soho in the early 1960s (with Fame mimicking the list of train stations used by James Brown). It featured on Fame's first 1964 album, the live Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo. It featured again on the 1998 album The Very Best of Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.
The World Saxophone Quartet recorded a version on their album Rhythm and Blues (1989).
Ska band The Toasters covered the song on their 1992 album New York Fever
Kadoc released a dance/electronic track "The Nighttrain" with samples from the James Brown recording.
Public Enemy also released a version of "Night Train" which took samples from the James Brown version.
Lou Donaldson
The group Reverend Organdrum (featuring Jim "The Reverend Horton Heat" Heath) performs "Night Train" on their 2008 album Hi-Fi Stereo.
Wes Montgomery & Jimmy Smith
Fergie interpolates the song in the bridge of her 2006 "Fergalicious".

Appearances in film

Forrest himself performs an extended version of "Night Train" with the Count Basie Orchestra in the 1979 film Last of the Blue Devils.
It is played by the band "Marvin Berry and The Starlighters" at the high school dance in Back to the Future. It is heard again in its sequel.
By James Brown, is played in the bar fight scene in Rush Hour.
It is played during a club scene towards the end of Raging Bull.
It is featured on the soundtrack album to Quadrophenia (1979)
It is played at the beginning of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang".
By James Brown, also features in the soundtrack of the Tom Hanks movie Apollo 13.
It is played in the Happy Days episode "The Skin Game".