50 Best Rock Songs About Night

Best Rock Tracks for Late Nights

There’s something strange that happens once the sun drops and the streetlights start buzzing. The city slows down, but your brain doesn’t get the memo. Everything feels louder and quieter at once, the kind of space where guitars stretch out longer than they should and voices sound like they’re trying to reach across time. That’s where these songs live. Some of them talk about darkness outright, others slip into it sideways, but they all hum with the same pulse. The restless kind. The kind that keeps you from calling it a night even when you should.

Rock has always had a thing for nighttime moods. It’s where the bravado cracks a little and the truth sneaks out. You can hear it in Springsteen’s engines revving down empty highways or in Arctic Monkeys’ late-hour swagger that masks something heavier. Sometimes the night feels reckless, sometimes it’s too quiet for comfort. And tucked between those extremes are tracks that sound like they were built for flickering neon, echoing parking lots, and the seconds before the sun crawls up again. Not every track on this list is literally about the dark hours, but every one of them fits that strange in-between feeling they carry.

These aren’t the clean, high-gloss cuts that fade out by midnight. They’re messy, wired, a little unsteady in ways that hit different when the day’s done. You could drop them next to pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that try to fake ease, but these ones lean into the unease. They stretch, they burn slow, they sound like headlights on a long drive or laughter that’s a bit too loud to be chill. Here are the best rock songs for the night.

1. 'Nights in White Satin' by The Moody Blues

2. 'In the Air Tonight' by Phil Collins

3. 'You Shook Me All Night Long' by AC/DC

4. 'Night Moves' by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

5. 'Because the Night' by Patti Smith Group

6. 'Wild Night' by Van Morrison

7. 'In the Evening' by Led Zeppelin

8. 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting' by Elton John

9. 'Still of the Night' by Whitesnake

10. 'Midnight Rambler' by The Rolling Stones

11. 'After Midnight' by Eric Clapton

12. 'One of These Nights' by Eagles

13. 'Dancing in the Dark' by Bruce Springsteen

14. 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' by Bruce Springsteen

15. 'Heartache Tonight' by Eagles

16. 'Let's Spend The Night Together' by The Rolling Stones

17. 'A Hard Day's Night' by The Beatles

18. 'Night Time' by Killing Joke

19. 'Here Comes the Night' by Them

20. 'Rainbow in the Dark' by Dio

21. 'Shadows of the Night' by Pat Benatar

22. 'The Night' by The Doors

23. 'Night Prowler' by AC/DC

24. 'Dark Star' by Grateful Dead

25. 'Night Moves' by Bob Seger

26. 'Into the Night' by Benny Mardones

27. 'Nights' by The Zombies

28. 'A Night Like This' by The Cure

29. 'Dark Entries' by Bauhaus

30. 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' by The Band

31. 'Nightswimming' by R.E.M.

32. 'Moon Shadow' by Cat Stevens

33. 'Black Night' by Deep Purple

34. 'All Night Long' by Joe Walsh

35. 'Take Me Home Tonight' by Eddie Money

36. 'One More Night' by Phil Collins

37. 'Darkness, Darkness' by The Youngbloods

38. 'Midnight Rider' by The Allman Brothers Band

39. 'This Night' by Billy Joel

40. 'Drive All Night' by Bruce Springsteen

41. 'Midnight Train to Georgia' by Gladys Knight & The Pips

42. 'Midnight City' by M83

43. 'Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)' by Rod Stewart

44. 'Night' by Bruce Springsteen

45. 'I Drove All Night' by Cyndi Lauper

46. 'Whispers In The Dark' by Skillet

47. 'The Dark End of the Street' by James Carr

48. 'The Night' by Disturbed

49. 'Under Cover of Darkness' by The Strokes

50. 'Enter Sandman' by Metallica