This is a little outdated, but short and to the point.  http://www.comnet.ca/~rina/patti.html

Yes she did Because The Night.  Allegedly Springsteen wrote the music and chorus, and then gave it to her.  She finished writing it.   Or so I'm told (and not by either of them).  I think they're both credited as writers.  I'm pretty sure Springsteen released a version as well.  I'm also pretty sure it's her only release that actually charted.  The somewhat less well known, but classic "Rock n Roll Nigger" is also on this album (her third), called "Easter."  Audio clips:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002VQR/ref=pd_sim_music_3/104-2987674-8104745?v=glance&s=music

Her debut record contains "G L O R I A"  which you might recognize by its opening line: "Jesus died for somebody's sins...but not mine." (inspired by Van Morrison's Gloria, or did she inspire him?  I'd have to check the dates...)  Sample audio clip:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002VQQ/104-2987674-8104745?v=glance  (And if you want a recommendation by your own peep:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/criticallist/must_have_horses.shtml  )

"Dancing Barefoot" (from the album Wave) rounds out what I'm guessing to be her best known songs.  I think U2 has covered this as a B side somewhere.   Audio clip (Patti, not U2):  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002VQQ/104-2987674-8104745?v=glance

From some reviews:  "Before Chrissie and the Pretenders, before Blondie, before Punk...there was Patti." 

"I saw Patti read poetry alone. I saw Patti & Lenny at St. Marks Church. I saw Patti, Lenny & Richard at Max's. I was there at her last gig at the Academy of Music before a long hiatus. I rejoiced at her comeback performance at the Ritz after Fred "Sonic" Smith's passing. I saw Patti so often she once told me at a CCNY poetry reading, "You've seen me more than my manager!" All that I love about rock & roll is embodied in "Horses." When I listen I hear the Shangrilas in her girl-group vocals. Early Stones with Brian Jones in her swagger. Hardly ever do poetry and 3-chord rock marry so seamlessly. When she intones, "Suddenly, Johnny, gets the feeling, he's surrounded by horses, horses, horses...do you know how to pony?" it still makes my heart beat faster. Patti Smith is the original Riot Grrrl. The first woman, after Grace Slick, to not be a "my man done left me" victim. She hit a home run out of the ballpark with this record, uneclipsed even 30 years later. I still listen to everything she records, and see her & the band as often as they play live. She set the bar high. It hasn't dated in all these years."  

"In some ways, singer-songwriter Patti Smith seems an unlikely choice for a full-bore anthology. After all, she's had only one charting single with "Because the Night." Even at that time, most people probably were more familiar with Gilda Radner's spot-on parody of her on Saturday Night Live than with Smith herself. Yet her influence both on the fledgling NYC punk scene and as a protofeminist poet renders her something of an American counterculture icon."