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" Moscow Nights", originally titled " Leningrad Nights", is a Soviet patriotic song written by Mikhail Matusovsky and composed by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy. It was later covered as " Midnight in Moscow" by Kenny Ball.
In 1956, "Moscow Nights" was recorded by Vladimir Troshin, a young actor of the Moscow Art Theatre, for a scene in a Documentary film about the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic's athletic competition Spartakiad in which the athletes rest in Moscow Oblast, the Moscow suburbs. The film did nothing to promote the song, but thanks to radio broadcasts it gained popularity.
In 1962, at the height of the folk revival in the United States, the song was recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio on their popular live performance album At the Bitter End on Kapp Records. The group introduced the song with its original Russian lyrics to the American mainstream audience during the Cold War era of strained relations between the U.S. and the USSR.
In 1962, American singer and actress Ketty Lester recorded the song for her Love Letters album.
Swedish pianist Jan Johansson recorded a jazz version of the song for his 1967 album Jazz på ryska. This version was titled "Kvällar i Moskvas Förstäder" which translates to "Evenings in Moscow's suburbs".
A version of the song was recorded by James Last and appears on his Russland zwischen Tag und Nacht album.
The Chinese composer Gao Ping used the song in 2003 as the basis for one of his Soviet Love Songs for Vocalising Pianist, "Evenings in Suburban Moscow."
In 2015, the Massed Bands of the Moscow Garrison, under the direction of Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, performed a march arrangement of the song during the march past of foreign contingents (specifically those from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) in the Moscow Victory Day Parade that year.
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