Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen Revel in the Glory of 'Because the Night'

As Bruce Springsteen prepares to release 'The Promise,' the massive retrospective of his landmark album 'Darkness on the Edge of Town,' Spinner recently premiered a clip of him performing the song 'Because the Night,' one of the cuts that didn't make the LP. After deciding the song didn't fit onto 'Darkness,' he handed it over to Patti Smith, who added new lyrics and turned it into a Top 20 hit. So, just how much of that famous song can be credited to Smith?

"Truthfully, when Bruce gave me the tape and I listened to it, Bruce had already arranged the song," Smith tells Spinner. "He had the chorus and I filled in the verses. The song was written in my key and all we had to do was play it in our manner. Bruce presented us a fully realized song."

Smith goes on to say that the sessions for the song took about two days and were recorded towards the end of making what would become 'Easter,' her third album.

"It was a very easy birth," she recalls. "Back then, we didn't have a very big budget. I wrote the lyrics and spun it as a love song to my future husband, but it wasn't something we had to labor over. The music was very familiar to me; it spoke of both of our roots. We're both close enough to Philadelphia and it had that sort of Philly-anthemic feel. I related to it right away."

Watch Bruce Springsteen Play 'Because the Night' in 1978'

While some musicians might bemoan the fact that one of their so-called outtakes became a hit for another artist, Smith says nothing like that occurred between her and Springsteen.

Listen to Springsteen's 'The Promise'

"I don't know what it would feel like to give away a hit record to someone else, but you know, it was exciting," she admits. "We're pretty much the same age and we hung around in close proximity. Publishing-wise, it's basically Bruce's song. It was good for him as well as it was for me."