The Night's Too Long

"The Night's Too Long"
Single by Patty Loveless
from the album On Down the Line
B-side	"Overtime"
Released	September 23, 1990
Format	7-inch vinyl single
Recorded	1990
Genre	Country
Length	3:10
Label	MCA Nashville
Songwriter(s)	Lucinda Williams
Producer(s)	Tony Brown
Patty Loveless singles chronology
"On Down The Line" (1989) "The Night's Too Long" (1990) "I'm That Kind of Girl" (1991)
"On Down The Line" (1989) "The Night's Too Long" (1990) "I'm That Kind of Girl" (1991)
Music video
"The Night's Too Long"

"The Night's Too Long" is a song written by Lucinda Williams, and originally recorded by her 1988 self-titled album. It was recorded by American country music artist Patty Loveless. It was released in September 1990 as the second single from her album On Down the Line.

Background

Loveless and record producer Tony Brown had been listening to demo tapes for potential material for her upcoming album, when they began listening to "The Night's Too Long", written by Lucinda Williams. After listening to Williams perform the song that evening at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, they decided to record the song.

The song is a "making-it" song, where a restless young woman decides to move from her small town to the big city, where she can take in the nightlife and meet the man of her dreams. The first part of the song has her sacrificing to set up her move, which takes place in the second half of the song. Her new office job (in the song's third verse) takes a back seat to her going out to the bars, where she dances and eventually consummates a relationship with the man she had been looking for.

The song charted for 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart, reaching number 20 during the week of December 8, 1990.^[1]

Critical reception

Lisa Smith and Cyndi Hoelzle described the song favorably in Gavin Report, where they wrote that "Patty plaintively sings the story of a woman trying to break out of her small -town life."^[2]

Chart positions

References