Because The Night

"Because The Night" is a cover of a 1978 song by the Patti Smith Group recorded by Garbage and Screaming Females in 2013 as a single for Record Store Day. The song became an immediate hit on Jessica's Top 40 upon its release, reaching #1 the first week of June to become the second chart-topper for Garbage and first for Screaming Females.

With Garbage fresh off their biggest year ever as their comeback album Not Your Kind Of People produced five top 10 hits (three of which are the band's most successful hits to date), the question that loomed was how Garbage would follow it up in 2013. Many of the artists who were extremely successful in "the year of the core JessieLou artist" extended their successes in the following year, with Lita Ford, Rush and Heart showing particular strength early in the year. It wouldn't be until April of that year when Garbage would mark their JT40 return, but they did it in a huge way.

To promote two of the singles from Not Your Kind Of People, "Blood For Poppies" (the album's biggest hit and the band's first #1 single) and "Battle In Me", Garbage issued limited edition vinyls for Record Store Day, an annual event held in April to promote mom and pop record stores. The band wanted to follow it up with another Record Store Day single in 2013, which they said would be "something special." And like the year before, it translated into enormous JT40 success.

Garbage teamed with Screaming Females, a punk rock band from New Jersey that served as the opening act for their North American tour in 2012, on a cover of the Patti Smith Group's 1978 hit "Because The Night". Screaming Females' lead singer and guitarist Marissa Paternoster had suggested the two bands cover the song live, and its favorable response led to the studio collaboration; Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson said of the collaboration, "We thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to solidify a recording and do something really special for the fans and for all the independent record stores." "Because The Night", originally written by rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen for his album Darkness On The Edge Of Town but didn't make the cut, has been popularly covered by numerous artists since Smith's version was released, most notably by Natalie Merchant's former band 10,000 Maniacs during an MTV Unplugged appearance in 1993.

The members of Screaming Females flew from New Jersey to Los Angeles to record the cover with Garbage, with the band members setting up two complete sets of instruments for the session in what Garbage drummer and producer Butch Vig described as "old-school style." The cover features Shirley Manson and Marissa Paternoster sharing vocal duties, concluding with a guitar solo from Paternoster; Vig praised the solo in an interview with NME, saying, "that girl can shred like Eddie Van Halen, no kidding."

"Because The Night" debuted on Jessica's Top 40 on April 21, 2013, just four days after its release, at #26. The following week, it skyrocketed to #10 and also received my first five-star single review in JT40 Magazine, where I complimented the song as a "flawless track all around", citing Manson's vocals, Paternoster's guitar solo and its similarity to the 10,000 Maniacs version. "Because The Night" topped Jessica's Top 40 the week of June 2, 2013, becoming Garbage's second #1 and Screaming Females' first. It showed further proof that 2013 was shaping up to be an extension of "the year of the core JessieLou artist."