On the Night was recorded in May 1992 at Les Arenes in Nîmes, France, and at Feijenoord Stadion in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, concerts that were part of the On Every Street Tour, which included 216 shows in Europe, North America, and Australia, and sold 7.1 million tickets.

A CD single for "Your Latest Trick" entitled Encores, was released in the UK which included three additional recordings from the tour: "The Bug", "Solid Rock" and "Local Hero - Wild Theme".

The album was remastered and reissued with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world outside the United States.

The band never put out a studio version; Jeff Healey released it on his album Hell to Pay, while an earlier live performance by Dire Straits (with Eric Clapton) was recorded at the 1990 Knebworth Festival and included on the "various artists" album and video distillation.

In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album two out of five stars, writing that the album "works sporadically, offering enough good material to interest fans but not enough to win back the commercial audience earned by Brothers in Arms.