"Night Moves" received critical acclaim. Timothy White of Crawdaddy! felt "the genius of the song [...] is the way Seger changes the meaning of the phrase 'night moves,' from a reference to making out, to a comment on the passage of time." Billboard described "Night Moves" as having a similar feel and theme to Van Morrison's "Wild Night," stating that the theme was "the earthy yearnings of adolescence" and saying that Seger matched Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart in vocal expressiveness. Cash Box said that the song is "based on standard, emotive rock ’n’ roll chords played on acoustic guitar, dressed up with keyboards, a soulful backing chorus and of course Seger’s throaty voice." Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn said that "this Van Morrison-influenced slice back-seat sensuality" may be the song to return Seger to the Top 10 after an 8 year absence. In his 1979 volume Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, famed rock critic Greil Marcus selected the single "Night Moves" for inclusion on same, writing simply: "The mystic chords of memory."Marcus, Greil. Epilogue, Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island; Knopf, 1979. . Paul Evans, in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, writes: "[It] is not only Seger's best song, but one of rock's most moving exercises in elegy."
