It serves as the lead-off single and title track to their second studio album of the same name, and was first released in the US on August 11, 2009, and it features lead vocals from both Scott and Kelley.

2,[7] the best position for a country song by a band on that chart since Lonestar's "Amazed" topped the tally at the beginning of the decade.

In the video the song has an extended piano intro, and features all members of the group acting out scenes related to the storyline.

Hillary Scott commented on the song, saying that "All three of us know what it's like to get to that point where you feel lonely enough that you make a late-night phone call that you very well could regret the next day."

[16] The track received a positive review from Ken Tucker of Billboard, who said, "the song finds alto Scott trading lead vocals with a soulful Kelley, and it will connect with anyone who's ever dumped a significant other and regretted it in the early morning hours.

He also thought the traded-off lead vocals gave the song "more depth," and that Kelley and Scott sang more strongly than on the debut album.

[18] Critics in Europe and North America have pointed to similarities between "Need You Now" and "Eye in the Sky" by The Alan Parsons Project.

[22] For the Billboard tracking period of March 29 – April 4, 2010, "Need You Now" broke the record held by Hoobastank's hit "The Reason" for most spins in one week on the Adult Top 40 chart.

It was covered in a live performance for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Concert in June 2012 by English singers Gary Barlow and Cheryl Cole which saw the song re-enter the UK Charts.

It begins in a hallway of a hotel where Kelley is sitting against a wall and Scott is in her room, with Haywood playing the piano.

In response, McClister admitted he simply did not want the video to be a literal adaptation of the song, as he felt sitting in a diner in the middle of the night was lonelier.

[citation needed] Mia Silva performed a Portuguese-language cover version entitled "Preciso de Voce" on her 2011 album Saudade Magoa.

Gary Barlow and Cheryl performed "Need You Now" at the Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace on June 4, 2012.

This was released as a promotional single in East Asia (with a new arrangement and a duet with a Filipina bossa nova music artist Sitti), and it charted in iTunes Top Songs in Laos, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia.