Because the Night
by Patti Smith
- 123
- BPM
- B minor
- Key
- 10A
- Camelot
- 47
- Danceability
- 6
- Acousticness
Bruce Springsteen wrote the first version of "Because the Night" in 1977 but never finished it. The E Street Band recorded it at Atlantic Studios in New York on June 1, 1977, the first day of the Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions, and the lyrics were only the title and some mumbling. He struggled with it for nearly four months. He did not like it, calling it another love song.
Jimmy Iovine was engineering Springsteen's album and also producing Easter for Patti Smith at the Record Plant. He brought Smith Springsteen's last recording of the song, from September 27, 1977. Smith added her own lyrics and recorded it two months after Springsteen's original.
She first sang it live at CBGB in New York on December 30, 1977, her 31st birthday, with Springsteen joining on vocals and guitar. The single came out on March 2, 1978, reaching No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 in the UK. It pushed Easter to mainstream success. It was her biggest hit. Springsteen never put it on a studio album but sang it on tour with his own words. A live acoustic version by 10,000 Maniacs for MTV Unplugged in 1993 reached No. 11 on the Hot 100.
Because the Night runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in B minor, Camelot 10A, which shares its notes with D major and mixes cleanly with E minor and F# minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.