Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band recorded "Because the Night" at Atlantic Studios, New York on June 1, 1977, the first day of sessions for Darkness on the Edge of Town, though the lyrics only consisted of the song title and some mumbling. Springsteen struggled with the song almost four months until his engineer, Jimmy Iovine, got involved. At the time, Iovine was also producing the album Easter for Patti Smith at the Record Plant, New York, where Darkness was being recorded at the same time. Iovine says, "Now, Bruce was very understanding and very flexible, because he realized that this was my first real break as a producer. Anyway, one night whilst we were lounging around the Hotel Navarro in New York I told Bruce I desperately wanted a hit with Patti, that she deserved one. He agreed. As he had no immediate plans to put ‘Because the Night’ on an album, I said why not give it to Patti. Bruce replied, ‘If she can do it, she can have it.’"
Springsteen later admitted he was not satisfied with the song, and he already knew he wasn't going to finish it since it was "a[nother] love song";. Iovine brought Smith the last recording by Springsteen, from September 27, 1977. Smith added her own lyrics, recorded it for her album Easter, and scored her first and biggest hit single.
The song was first performed live at a Patti Smith concert at CBGB's in New York City on December 30, 1977 (Patti's 31st birthday) with Springsteen joining on vocals and guitar. Though it was never released on any of Springsteen's studio albums, in concert beginning with his Darkness Tour Springsteen would often perform the song with his own lyrics. To date, he has performed it 503 times in concert.
The only two commercially released recordings of a Springsteen version of the song were in the 1986 box set Live/1975–85, where Smith was listed as co-writer; and the 2010 compilation album The Promise (using the original recording from the Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions, but using Smith's lyrics).
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