Bruce Springsteen’s Failed Prediction That Caused Him A Hit Song
Creating a song through composing the sound, writing the lyrics, and making the necessary arrangements can be a challenging process. Many artists have managed to create works that would have a special place in their fans’ hearts, but they have also torn up and binned many more as they assumed they would not be as popular.
Almost every piece of music has its own unforgettable and exciting origin story, and while some get shared by their creators during later conversations, others remain a secret. One of these stories belonged to the E Street Band and Bruce Springsteen and featured another famous punk rock musician. The hit song, ‘Because the Night,’ had an interesting creation and recording process; let’s learn more about them.
The Story Of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Because the Night’
After three years of a break following ‘Born to Run,’ Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began working on their fourth studio album, ‘ Darkness on the Edge of Town’ in the late ’70s. During one of its recording sessions, Springsteen had a title in his mind and mumbled the rest of it for a while. The singer focused on writing lyrics for that track which would take place on the record, but he couldn’t find the inspiration.
Four months later, his engineer, Jimmy Iovine, decided to do something about this unfinished song that turned into a torment for Springsteen and probably caused them to lose time. Around the same time, he was also punk rocker Patti Smith’s producer and hoped he had an idea. As an experienced person in the industry, Iovine came up with a solution for both his clients, and he talked to Springsteen about it.
In one of the interviews he joined years ago, Jimmy Iovine stated that he needed a hit for Smith and asked Springsteen if he could give ‘Because the Night’ to her. The singer agreed to hand it to her, and Patti Smith wrote her lyrics for the song. It was featured in her third studio album ‘Easter,’ which she dropped on March 3, 1978. ‘Because the Night’ was a commercial success and an international hit that became a milestone work for Smith’s career.
Along with Smith, Springsteen performed it on Darkness Tour, which began on May 23, 1978, in Buffalo, with his lyrics. The song that the singer couldn’t finish and considered throwing away became highly successful and famous following Smith’s artistic touch. In addition to its chart success and sales, more than 25 million people have listened to it on Youtube even though it was released decades ago.
Here’s what Iovine said:
“Now, Bruce was very understanding and flexible because he realized this was my first real break as a producer. Anyway, one night while 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.'”
You can listen to the song below.