"Undercover of the Night" is the lead track and first single from the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones' 1983 album Undercover.
The song was largely a Mick Jagger composition, with guitarist Keith Richards going as far as saying, "Mick had this one all mapped out, I just played on it". Jagger later said that the song "was heavily influenced by William Burroughs’ ‘Cities of the Red Night,’ a free-wheeling novel about political and sexual repression. It combines a number of different references to what was going down in Argentina and Chile." The song was likely written in Paris in late 1982, where recording began on the album.
The lyrics see Jagger explore the then-ongoing political corruption in Central and South America:
All the young men, they've been rounded up;
And sent to camps back in the jungle;
And people whisper, people double-talk;
Once proud fathers act so humble.
"Undercover of the Night" is one of the few songs by the Rolling Stones which overtly explore political ideas.
A music video was made in Mexico City for the song, featuring Jagger as a detective helping a woman (played by Elpidia Carrillo) follow her boyfriend's (also played by Jagger) kidnappers and Richards as the leader of the kidnappers, who eventually shoots Jagger. The music video, directed by Julien Temple, was considered to be too violent for MTV (they did eventually air an edited version, but not before 9 PM due to the violent imagery). An uncensored version of the video was included on the band's Video Rewind compilation.