Songfacts®:

• This was written for the 1986 stage adaptation of The Phantom Of The Opera. The song is performed by The Phantom (played by Crawford in the London and Broadway productions) as he seduces Christine Daae with his music.
• This was originally written for the play Aspects Of Love and was called "Married Man," but the theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh felt it should be used as a solo for The Phantom in Act One. Richard Stilgoe came up with the title "Music of the Night" and most of the lyrics are his. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music, and the order of the words is the work of Charles Hart. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Robert - Staffordshire, England
• Gerard Butler performed this when he played the title role in the 2004 movie The Phantom of the Opera, an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.
• Crawford recorded this as a duet with Barbra Streisand for her 1993 album Back to Broadway. The following year, it was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Duo or Group at the Grammy Awards but lost to "A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme)."
• Andrew Lloyd Webber faced a plagiarism suit when composer Giacomo Puccini's estate accused him of lifting the melody for "The Music of the Night" from Puccini's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West). The suit was settled out of court.