This is the title track to William Friedkin's 1985 crime drama To Live and Die in LA Wang Chung wrote the original score for the film (which included this song). >>

According to the DVD commentary on To Live and Die in L.A., director William Friedkin didn't want a theme song for the movie, but Jack Hues and Nick Feldman of Wang Chung wrote one anyway, which was this song. Friedkin liked it and decided to use it in his movie. >>

In an interview with Eric Greenberg on the Just My Show podcast, Jack Hues of Wang Chung explained: "It all has to do with the opportunity to explore a new genre. I started out just a kid in love with the Beatles music and learning to play guitar, but when I got around 18, I wanted to go to university. And at that time you had to do classical music if you wanted to do music in university. So I got into classical music, and that whole thing of long form composition - outside of a three-minute pop song - was something I really, really wanted to do. So the opportunity for To Live and Die in LA was ideal for me creatively. It gave me the chance to really expand ideas instead of always having to pare them down and try and fit them into that three-minute format."

Thanks to lyrics that reference the nightlife, this landed a spot in Michelob's popular '80s campaign "The Night Belongs to Michelob." The version in the ad alters the lyrics about the "heat of the day" in favor of the "heat of the night."