Despite her large cult following and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career (she was inducted in 2007), this was Patti Smith's only hit, making it an anomaly in her discography, which was aimed at a far more narrow audience.
For many not familiar with Smith's career or the history of Punk, this is the only recognizable song of hers. The producers of the 2013 movie CBGB, played to this audience when they portrayed singing this song at the famous club in 1975 - two years before she recorded it and a year before it was written. In the film, Smith was played by Mickey Sumner, who is Sting's daughter.
Bruce Springsteen wrote this song. He gave it to Patti Smith in 1976 because he thought it would suit her voice. He was also in a legal battle with his manager, Mike Appel, that kept him from recording for almost three years.
Springsteen gave this to Smith with the music and the chorus. She filled in the lyrics one night while waiting for her husband to call.
Springsteen joined Smith on Stage several times in 1976-1977, while legal battles kept him from recording.
Smith bought her dad a new 1978 Cordoba with the money she made from this.
Smith's producer on the Easter album was Jimmy Iovine, who would go on to great things as a producer and entrepreneur, but was still getting started in the business at the time. "Because The Night" was his first hit as a producer, and he credits Bruce Springsteen for granting him the opportunity. Iovine had worked on Bruce's 1975 Born To Run album, and Springsteen have him the song to deliver to Smith. This "really launched by career," Iovine said.
Smith was hesitant to use a song written by someone else, but changed her mind when she heard Springsteen's demo.
After this song became a hit, Smith dismissed it as "commercial sh-t." She admitted that it was a well-written song, but didn't want it to define her career. (thanks, Adam - Dewsbury, England)
As The Boss was struggling to finish this song, he agreed to Jimmy Iovine's request that Patti Smith could complete it. Springsteen explained why to Mojo magazine August 2010: "It was a love song and I really wasn't writing them at the time. I wrote these very hidden love songs like For You, or Sandy, maybe even Thunder Road, but they were always coming from a different angle. My love songs were never straight out, they weren't direct. That song needed directness and at the time I was uncomfortable with it. I was hunkered down in my samurai position. Darkness… was about stripping away everything - relationships, everything - and getting down to the core of who you were. So that song is the great missing song from Darkness On The Edge. I could not have finished it as good as she did. She was in the midst of her love affair with Fred 'Sonic' Smith and she had it all right there on her sleeve. She put it down in a way that was just quite wonderful."
