Because the Night

"Because the Night" is a song from 1977 written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith which appears on the 1978 Patti Smith Group album Easter. On March 2, 1978, the song was released as a single, and was commercially successful, reaching No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 5 in the United Kingdom, which helped propel Easter to mainstream success. The song has been recorded by several singers. In 1993, a live acoustic version was recorded by 10,000 Maniacs for MTV Unplugged. This version reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest charting version of the song in the U.S. The song also became 10,000 Maniacs' highest charting single in the U.S. and Canada. In 1987, the song was ranked No. 116 on NME magazine's list of "The Top 150 Singles of All Time". It remains the best-known song of Smith's catalog. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 358 on "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The Independent listed the song as one of the ten best new wave singles of 1978.