page_title: Midnight Special (song)
section_title: Other versions
hierarchical_section_title: Midnight Special (song) / Other versions
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968). L-R: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and John Fogerty.
context_page_description: "Midnight Special" is a traditional folk song thought to have originated among prisoners in the American South. The song refers to the passenger train Midnight Special and its "ever-loving light".
  The song is historically performed in the country-blues style from the viewpoint of the prisoner and has been covered by many artists.
context_section_description: Folk/bluegrass musicians Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper had a top 5 country hit with the song in 1959 as "Big Midnight Special".
  Only two versions of the song have reached the US Billboard Hot 100. Paul Evans recorded the highest-charting version of "Midnight Special," reaching number 16 in the winter of 1960.  Five years later, Johnny Rivers' version reached number 20 in 1965. The Johnny Rivers version was used as the theme for the NBC music program The Midnight Special.
  Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Odetta, Les Paul, The Kingston Trio (who also recorded their song "The Tijuana Jail", which retains the same music but with new lyrics), Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Beatles, Burl Ives, Big Joe Turner, Bobby Darin, Cisco Houston, Jimmy Smith, Mungo Jerry, Van Morrison, Little Richard, Buckwheat Zydeco, Otis Rush, The Spencer Davis Group, Lonnie Donegan, Eric Clapton, The Louvin Brothers, Long John Baldry, The Kentucky Headhunters, Willie Watson, Mischief Brew, Hoyt Axton and Creedence Clearwater Revival, among others, have recorded the song. Jody Miller arranged her own version and included it on her first album Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe in 1963.
  Harry Belafonte's 1962 version is notable for containing the first official recording of Bob Dylan, who played harmonica.
  Paul McCartney has performed it numerous times (with The Beatles and solo). It was the closing song on his 1988 album CHOBA B CCCP and was performed on his 1991 appearance on MTV Unplugged, but was not included on the accompanying album.
  ABBA recorded the song in 1975 for charity, as a part of a folk medley, along with "Pick a Bale of Cotton" and "On Top of Old Smokey". It was the B-side to their 1978 single "Summer Night City". The medley represents the group's only recording of material not written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus after their breakthrough with "Ring Ring" in 1973.
  Dylan references a line from the song — "Shine your light on me" — on the second track, "Precious Angel", of his 1979 gospel album Slow Train Coming.
  Mischief Brew recorded a cover of "The Midnight Special" for their 2006 album, Songs From Under the Sink.
caption: Creedence Clearwater Revival, whose version of the song appeared on their album Willy and the Poor Boys (1969).
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