Songfacts®:

• When Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders wanted to write a hit song, she called on the songwriting team of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly for help. Steinberg and Kelly had already written many hits, including "True Colors" and "Eternal Flame." Over a two week period, Kelly, Steinberg and Hynde wrote this song along with "I'll Stand By You," "Love Colors Everything," "977" and "Hollywood Perfume." Says Steinberg, "'Night In My Veins' really felt like a great Pretenders rocker, 'I'll Stand By You' felt a little generic. I know that Chrissie felt that way too to some extent."
• Steinberg: "Tom and I did some preparation, because we knew we were going to be working with Chrissie, and we tried to come up with a couple of ideas. And one of the ideas we came up with was 'Night In My Veins.' I had that lyric, with the title 'Night In My Veins,' and I was really proud of the first verse: 'I see him standing silhouetted in the lamplight. I cross the street, and I quicken my pace. He cups his hands and he lights a cigarette. I find myself in the bones of his face. It's just the night in my veins.' I had written that, and I really like it. But then when Chrissie came in and she heard what Tom and I had started, it didn't really have much more to it lyrically. And she added some really great lines, and finished the lyric." (Check out our interview with Billy Steinberg.)
• The B-side of the single is a cover of "Angel of the Morning," which the following year was included on a Friends soundtrack album after Chrissie Hynde sang it on the show.