Songfacts®:

• Ellen Foley is best known as the female vocalist on Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," where she's gotta know right now if he'll love her forever. With a huge voice and striking look, she was a popular stage performer as well, appearing on Broadway in Hair and briefly in a sitcom called 3 Girls 3.
  
  "We Belong To The Night" was her first single as a solo artist. It didn't get much attention in America but went to #1 in the Netherlands, where "Paradise" was a chart-topper months earlier. Foley released two more albums before turning her focus to acting. In 1984, she landed a role on the hit series Night Court.
• This song is about the city dwellers who toil away at their jobs in the daylight hours but come alive at night, enjoying what the city has to offer. Foley was living in New York City, which served as inspiration. "I wrote that with a guy named Fred Goodman," she said in a Songfacts interview. "We were in a room in my apartment that faced Broadway. New York was pretty gritty then. I was always inspired by Aretha Franklin's version of 'Spanish Harlem,' which really evoked the romance of the city."
• The song's theme was a common one in the disco era when young people would hit the New York City nightclubs after a thankless day at work. This plays out vividly in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.
• This song was produced by Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, both known for their work with David Bowie. In her Songfacts interview, Foley said: "They completely jumped into the Phil Spector girl group vibe and encouraged me to really go for it vocally. And, of course, the Ronson guitar solo really puts the thing over the top."
• Belonging to the night became a bit of a musical trend in the '80s, with Pat Benatar's "We Belong" and Glenn Frey's "You Belong To The City."