The Song Bruce Springsteen Left Unfinished — Then Patti Smith Made It a Hit

Bruce Springsteen had the music.

He had the chorus.

He had the basic idea.

But he couldn’t finish the song.

Then another singer got hold of the unfinished recording and turned it into the biggest hit of her career.

That song was “Because the Night.”

It became a defining recording for Patti Smith, reached the Top 20 in America, and eventually became one of the best-known songs associated with both Smith and Springsteen.

But the story of how it happened is much more unusual than most people realize.

Springsteen Had Already Recorded It

In 1977, Bruce Springsteen was working on the album that would eventually become Darkness on the Edge of Town.

He and the E Street Band were recording at studios in New York, trying to shape the songs that would make the album.

One of those songs was “Because the Night.”

Springsteen recorded the basic track during the early Darkness sessions, beginning on June 1, 1977.

But there was a problem.

The lyrics weren’t finished.

The recording had the music and the chorus, but the verses were still incomplete. Springsteen kept working on it for months without finding a version he was satisfied with.

Eventually, he decided the song wasn’t going to make the album.

And that’s where the story takes a completely unexpected turn.

The Other Studio Was Patti Smith’s

At the same time, Patti Smith was working on her own album, Easter, at the Record Plant in New York.

Her producer was a young engineer named Jimmy Iovine.

And Iovine was also involved with Springsteen’s sessions.

He knew Springsteen had this unfinished song.

He also knew Patti Smith needed strong material for her album.

So Iovine took a tape of Springsteen’s unfinished recording and brought it over to Smith.

Springsteen had essentially decided he wasn’t going to use the song.

But Iovine thought Smith might be able to do something with it.

He was right.

Patti Smith Heard Something in It

Smith listened to the recording.

The music immediately caught her attention.

Springsteen already had the basic chorus, including the phrase “Because the night.”

But the verses were missing.

So Smith began writing.

And she didn’t simply finish Springsteen’s lyrics.

She took the song in her own direction.

The result was much more personal to Smith’s own situation and perspective.

Smith later explained that she wrote the verses while waiting for a phone call from her then-boyfriend, Fred “Sonic” Smith.

She had been waiting for him to call.

The unfinished Springsteen recording was playing.

And suddenly, the words began to come together.

That’s one of the most fascinating parts of the story.

Springsteen had written the musical foundation.

Smith took that foundation and gave it a completely different emotional life.

The Two Writers Became One Song

The finished song wasn’t simply a Springsteen song performed by Patti Smith.

It became a genuine collaboration.

The official songwriting credit belongs to Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith.

Springsteen wrote the original music and chorus framework.

Smith wrote the verses that transformed the unfinished recording into the version people came to know.

And Springsteen himself has credited Smith’s contribution as essential.

Without her work on the song, it might never have been released at all.

Then They Played It Together

Before Smith’s studio version was even released, something remarkable happened.

On December 30, 1977, Patti Smith performed at CBGB in New York.

It was her birthday.

And Bruce Springsteen joined her onstage.

Together, they performed “Because the Night.”

It was the first public performance of the song.

Think about how strange that moment was.

The songwriter who had abandoned the unfinished song was suddenly standing onstage with the person who had completed it.

And within months, the song would belong to a much bigger audience.

Patti Smith’s Version Became the Hit

“Because the Night” appeared on Patti Smith’s 1978 album Easter.

It was released as a single in the spring of 1978.

The response changed Smith’s career.

The song reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 in the United Kingdom, becoming her biggest commercial hit.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame describes it as a Top 20 hit that helped Smith make an unlikely breakthrough into the rock mainstream.

For Patti Smith, this was a major turning point.

She had already built a reputation as a groundbreaking New York artist, poet and performer.

But “Because the Night” introduced her to an enormous audience that might never have discovered her otherwise.

Springsteen Didn’t Release His Version

Here’s another strange part of the story.

Even though Springsteen had written the original music, he didn’t put “Because the Night” on Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Instead, he performed it live.

He developed his own versions of the lyrics over the years and made the song part of his concerts.

But a Springsteen studio version wasn’t officially released until 2010, when it appeared on The Promise, a collection of recordings from the Darkness on the Edge of Town era.

So for decades, the version most people knew was Patti Smith’s.

That created an unusual situation.

A song written by one of America’s most famous songwriters became a signature hit for someone else.

And That’s Why the Song Feels So Different

The song has the dramatic rock sound you would expect from Springsteen.

But Smith’s performance gives it something else.

Her delivery is urgent.

Passionate.

Almost desperate.

And the lyrics feel like they’re happening in the middle of the night, when everything becomes more intense and emotions take over.

That combination helped make the song feel bigger than its original recording.

It wasn’t just a leftover track from a Bruce Springsteen album.

It became Patti Smith’s song too.

More Than 45 Years Later

There are plenty of famous songs that were rejected by their original writers.

But this story is different.

Springsteen didn’t simply give Smith a finished song.

He gave her something unfinished.

A piece of music that he had struggled with and eventually decided not to use.

Smith heard something in it that he hadn’t been able—or perhaps hadn’t wanted—to finish.

She wrote the missing pieces.

She turned it into her own statement.

And then she took it to the charts.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame now lists “Because the Night” among the signature works associated with Smith and describes it as a Springsteen co-write that helped bring her music to a much wider audience.

And there’s something almost perfect about the way it happened.

Bruce Springsteen had the song.

Patti Smith had the words.

Jimmy Iovine had the idea to put them together.

And the result became something none of them could have created alone.

A song that started as an unfinished recording in one New York studio…

ended up becoming one of the most unforgettable rock songs of the 1970s.

Sometimes a song doesn’t need to be finished by the person who started it.

Sometimes it just needs to find the right person to finish the story.