10 Best Songs With The Word 'Tonight' In The Title

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There is something about the word “tonight” in a song title that immediately makes everything feel more urgent. Tonight can mean falling in love, getting your heart broken, heading out for the night, sitting alone with your thoughts, or making a decision that changes your life. That is what makes these songs so different even though they all share the same word. From Rod Stewart, INXS, The Cars, and Elvis Presley to the Eagles, Van Halen, Phil Collins, and two very different Elton John songs, every one of these records gives “tonight” its own meaning.

# 10 – Tonight’s The Night – Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” takes me right back to 1976. I was 15 years old when it came out, and I remember hearing it on the radio what seemed like every 15 minutes. I bought A Night on the Town as soon as I heard the song, and it became one of my favorite records of the year, not only because of “Tonight’s the Night,” but also because of tracks like “Pretty Flamingo” and “The Killing of Georgie.” The last line of that song, “Georgie was… a friend of mine,” always got to me. “Tonight’s the Night” was a completely different kind of Rod Stewart song, smooth, seductive, and impossible to miss on the radio. It went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and finished as Billboard’s number-one song for 1977. Britt Ekland’s spoken French passage, Jerry Jumonville’s saxophone, Tom Dowd’s production, and Stewart’s unmistakable voice gave the record a late-night feel that still sounds great all these years later.

# 9 – Need You Tonight – INXS

“Need You Tonight” is one of those records where the opening guitar riff tells you almost everything you need to know before Michael Hutchence even starts singing. Released on Kick in 1987, the song pushed INXS all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped turn the band into one of the biggest acts in the world. Tim Farriss came up with that clipped, funky guitar part, while Garry Gary Beers and Jon Farriss lock the rhythm down underneath it and leave Hutchence plenty of space to work. What always made Hutchence so good was the way he could sound cool and controlled while still making a performance feel dangerous. “Need You Tonight” does not need a huge arrangement or a long explanation. It is built on groove, tension, sex, and attitude, and the band knew exactly how much to put into it without crowding the song. That restraint is a big reason the record still sounds so sharp.

Read More: Top 10 INXS Songs

# 8 – You’re All I’ve Got Tonight – The Cars

“You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” has always been one of our favorite songs from The Cars’ debut album, and it is a great example of how much power that first record had beyond the hit singles. Ric Ocasek wrote a song that sounds cold and detached on the surface, but there is plenty of desperation underneath it, and that tension fits The Cars perfectly. Elliot Easton’s guitar cuts through the track, Greg Hawkes brings in the keyboards without softening the edge, and Benjamin Orr and David Robinson keep everything moving with that tight, mechanical pulse the band did so well. Roy Thomas Baker’s production helped give the 1978 album its huge, clean sound, but the song never feels too polished. Ocasek’s vocal keeps it slightly uncomfortable, which is exactly what the lyric needs. It is part rock song, part new wave, part late-night obsession, and it still sounds like nobody else but The Cars.

# 7 – Are You Lonesome Tonight? – Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” shows just how much he could do with his voice when he pulled everything back and simply let the emotion carry the song. Written by Roy Turk and Lou Handman decades before Elvis recorded it, his version was cut at RCA Studio B in Nashville on April 3, 1960, with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, Floyd Cramer, The Jordanaires, and the rest of that great Nashville group around him. The record went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for six weeks, but what makes it last is the mood. Elvis sings it almost like he is alone in the room with the person he is talking to, and then the spoken section makes the whole performance even more intimate. There is no need for a huge rock arrangement here. The sadness, the memories, and the question in the title are enough. It remains one of the finest examples of Elvis showing his vulnerable side.

Read More: Top 10 Elvis Presley Love Songs

# 6 – I’d Really Love to See You Tonight – England Dan & John Ford Coley

“I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” is one of those 1970s soft-rock songs that sounded effortless on the radio, even though everything about the record was carefully put together. Written by Parker McGee and released on England Dan & John Ford Coley’s Nights Are Forever in 1976, the song climbed to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Easy Listening chart. Producer Kyle Lehning kept the arrangement light and open, which gave Dan Seals’ warm lead vocal and John Ford Coley’s harmonies room to breathe. The lyric is what really makes the song work because it does not make some giant promise about forever. It is simply one person wanting to see someone again without pretending to know what comes next. That honesty gives the song its charm. It is gentle, melodic, and completely tied to the sound of 1970s radio, but there is enough real feeling in it to keep it from ever sounding disposable.

# 5 – Tonight – Elton John

Elton John’s “Tonight” is one of the deepest songs on Blue Moves, and it is also one of those Elton John tracks that proves how far his music could move beyond the standard pop-song format. Released in 1976, the song opens with a long orchestral introduction arranged and conducted by James Newton Howard with the London Symphony Orchestra before Elton’s piano and voice finally enter. That opening gives the song enormous weight, but once Elton starts singing, everything becomes very personal. Bernie Taupin’s lyric is about two people who have reached the point where they have to talk honestly about what is happening between them, and Elton sings it with restraint instead of trying to overpower the arrangement. That is what I have always loved about the song. It is huge musically, yet emotionally it feels private. “Tonight” is not one of the obvious Elton John radio standards, but for anyone who has spent time with Blue Moves, it is one of the album’s most powerful moments.

# 4 – Heartache Tonight – The Eagles

“Heartache Tonight” is the Eagles cutting loose and sounding more like a bar band than the polished California group people sometimes reduce them to. Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bob Seger, and J.D. Souther wrote the song, Glenn Frey takes the lead vocal, and the 1979 recording from The Long Run has Don Henley on drums and backing vocals, Timothy B. Schmit on bass and backing vocals, Don Felder and Frey on rhythm guitars, Joe Walsh on slide guitar, and Bob Seger adding backing vocals. Bill Szymczyk produced it, and the single went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. What makes the song work is that heavy stomp underneath everything. You can almost hear a room full of people getting louder as the night goes on and everybody knows trouble is coming. The Eagles made plenty of beautiful, carefully layered records, but “Heartache Tonight” works because it sounds rougher, looser, and ready to fall apart in exactly the right way.

Read More: 10 Most Rocking Eagles Songs

# 3 – Feel Your Love Tonight – Van Halen

“Feel Your Love Tonight” is pure early Van Halen, and that is more than enough reason to have it this high on the list. The song comes from the band’s 1978 debut album, where Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Michael Anthony, and Alex Van Halen sounded like they had been dropped into the middle of the rock world with absolutely no intention of playing by anybody else’s rules. Eddie’s rhythm guitar is the engine of the song, Roth brings all the attitude, Michael Anthony’s bass and backing vocals add that huge Van Halen lift, and Alex drives everything with the kind of swing that separated this band from so many of the hard-rock groups that followed them. Ted Templeman’s production keeps the sound direct and alive. The lyric is not trying to solve the mysteries of life; it is about going out, chasing somebody, and having a good time tonight. Sometimes rock and roll does not need to be any more complicated than that, especially when a band sounds this good doing it.

# 2 – In The Air Tonight – Phil Collins

Phil Collins / Face Value. Tracks: In The Air Tonight. This Must Be Love. Behind The Lines. The Roof Is Leaking. Droned. Hand In Hand. I Missed Again & 5 More

“In the Air Tonight” was the moment Phil Collins stepped out on his own and delivered a record that sounded unlike almost anything else on the radio in 1981. Released as the lead single from Face Value, the song builds slowly through Collins’ drum machine, keyboards, vocoder, and voice, with John Giblin on bass, Daryl Stuermer on guitar, and L. Shankar on violin. Hugh Padgham’s engineering helped turn the massive gated drum sound into one of the defining production signatures of the decade, and everybody knows the moment when those drums finally explode. The song reached number two in the UK, but the charts are almost beside the point now because that drum break became part of popular culture. What I still love is everything that happens before it. Collins leaves so much empty space in the record that the tension becomes almost unbearable. By the time the drums come in, the release feels enormous. Very few records have ever used silence, atmosphere, and dynamics this effectively.

# 1 – Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Elton John

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy

“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” is Elton John and Bernie Taupin turning a painful piece of Elton’s own life into one of the greatest songs they ever wrote. Released on Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy in 1975, the song looks back at the period when Elton was close to marrying Linda Woodrow even though he knew in his heart it was wrong for him. The person who helped talk him out of going through with it was Long John Baldry, the “Sugar Bear” in the song, with Bernie Taupin also there during that difficult period. Recorded at Caribou Ranch with Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, and Ray Cooper, the track builds slowly around Elton’s piano until the chorus opens up and the feeling of escape becomes overwhelming. It became Elton’s ninth Top Five single in the United States. There are plenty of great songs about love on this list, but this one is about getting your life back, and that is why “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” belongs at number one.