'It's about this dark haired Italian girl that I went out with when I was 19, she was one year older than me,' he later recalled. Through these, he met a woman-credited as Rene Andretti in the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings-whose boyfriend was in the military and was away. The song's contents are largely autobiographical for example, the group of friends would often hold parties they called 'grassers', which involved going to a farmer's field outside Ann Arbor to dance. At a certain point, he began socializing with a rougher crowd, who thought he was cool because he played music. 'Night Moves' has roots in Seger's adolescence he wrote the song in an attempt to capture the 'freedom and looseness' he experienced during that period of his life. The song was responsible for changing Seger from being a popular regional favorite into a national star. It also charted at number five in Canada and was a top 25 hit in Australia.

Released as a single in December 1976, it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Seger's first hit single since ' Ramblin' Gamblin' Man' from 1969. As much of Seger's Silver Bullet Band had returned home by this point, the song was recorded with several local session musicians. It took him six months to write and was recorded quickly at Nimbus Nine Studios in Toronto, Ontario, with producer Jack Richardson. It was based on Seger's own teenage love affair he experienced in the early 1960s. Seger wrote the song as a coming of age tale about adolescent love and adult memory of it. It was the lead single from his ninth studio album of the same name (1976), which was released on Capitol Records. ' Night Moves' is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger.

Night moves chords