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In the decades following his emergence on the national scene in 1975, Bruce Springsteen proved to be that rarity among
popular musicians, an artist who maintained his status as a front line recording and performing star, consistently selling
millions of albums and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world year after year, as well as retaining widespread
critical approbation, with ecstatic reviews greeting those discs and shows. Although there were a few speed bumps along the
way in Springsteen's career, the wonder of his nearly unbroken string of critical and commercial success ...read more
In the decades following his emergence on the national scene in 1975, Bruce Springsteen proved to be that rarity among
popular musicians, an artist who maintained his status as a front line recording and performing star, consistently selling
millions of albums and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world year after year, as well as retaining widespread
critical approbation, with ecstatic reviews greeting those discs and shows. Although there were a few speed bumps along the
way in Springsteen's career, the wonder of his nearly unbroken string of critical and commercial success is that he achieved it
while periodically challenging his listeners by going off in unexpected directions, following his muse even when that meant
altering the sound of his music or the composition of his backup band, or making his lyrical message overtly political. Of
course, it may have been these very sidesteps that kept his image and his music fresh, especially since he always had the
fallback of returning to what his fans thought he did best, barnstorming the country with a marathon rock & roll show using
his longtime bandmates.
Bruce Springsteen was born September 23, 1949, in Freehold, New Jersey, the son of Douglas Springsteen, a bus driver, and
Adele (Zirilli) Springsteen, a secretary. He became interested in music after seeing Elvis Presley perform on The Ed Sullivan
Show in 1956 and obtained a guitar, but he didn't start playing seriously until 1963. In 1965, he joined his first band, the
Beatles-influenced Castiles. They got as far as playing in New York City, but broke up in 1967 around the time Springsteen
graduated from high school and began frequenting clubs in Asbury Park, New Jersey. From there, he briefly joined Earth, a
hard rock band in the style of Cream. Also in the hard rock vein was his next group, Child (soon renamed Steel Mill), which
featured keyboard player Danny Federici and drummer Vini Lopez. (Later on, guitarist Steve Van Zandt joined on bass.) Steel
Mill played in California in 1969, drawing a rave review in San Francisco and even a contract offer from a record label. But
they broke up in 1971, and Springsteen formed a big band, the short-lived Dr. Zoom & the Cosmic Boom, quickly superseded
by the Bruce Springsteen Band. Along with Federici, Lopez, and Van Zandt (who switched back to guitar), this group also
included pianist David Sancious and bassist Garry Tallent, plus a horn section that didn't last long before being replaced by a
single saxophonist, Clarence Clemons. Due to a lack of work, however, Springsteen broke up the band and began playing solo
shows in New York City. It was as a solo performer that he acquired a manager, Mike Appel, who arranged an audition for
legendary Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond. Hammond signed Springsteen to Columbia in 1972.
In preparing his debut LP, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., Springsteen immediately re-hired most of his backup band,
Federici, Lopez, Sancious, Tallent, and Clemons. (Van Zandt, on tour with the Dovells, was mostly unavailable.) The album
went unnoticed upon its initial release in January 1973 (although Manfred Mann's Earth Band would turn its lead-off track,
"Blinded by the Light," into a number one hit four years later, and the LP itself has since gone double platinum). The Wild,
the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (September 1973) also failed to sell despite some rave reviews. (It too has gone
double platinum.) The following year, Springsteen revised his backup group -- now dubbed the E Street Band -- as Lopez and
Sancious left, and Max Weinberg (drums) and Roy Bittan (piano) joined. (In 1975, Van Zandt returned to the group.) With
this unit he toured extensively while working on the LP that represented his last chance with Columbia. By the time Born to
Run (August 1975) was released, the critics and a significant cult audience were with him, and the title song became a Top
40 hit while the album reached the Top Ten, going on to sell six million copies.
Despite this breakthrough, Springsteen's momentum was broken by a legal dispute, as he split from Appel and brought in Jon
Landau (a rock critic who had famously called him the "rock & roll future" in a 1974 concert review) as his new manager. The
legal issues took until 1977 to resolve, during which time Springsteen was unable to record. (One beneficiary of this problem
was Patti Smith, to whom Springsteen gave the composition "Because the Night," which, with some lyrical revisions by her,
became her only Top 40 hit in the spring of 1978.) He finally returned in June 1978 with Darkness on the Edge of Town.
By then, he had to rebuild his career. Record labels had recruited their own versions of the Springsteen "heartland" rock
sound, in such similar artists as Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band (who actually preceded Springsteen but achieved national
recognition in his wake), Johnny Cougar (aka John Mellencamp), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Meat Loaf, Eddie Money,
and even fellow Jersey Shore residents Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, to name only some of the more successful
ones. At the same time, the punk/new wave trend had become the new focus of critical devotion, making Springsteen seem
unfashionable. Notwithstanding these challenges, Darkness earned its share of good reviews and achieved Top Ten
status, selling three million copies as the single "Prove It All Night" hit the Top 40. Then in early 1979, the Pointer Sisters
took Springsteen's composition "Fire" into the Top Ten.
Springsteen fully consolidated his status with his next album, the two-LP set The River (October 1980), which hit
number one, sold five million copies, and spawned the Top Ten hit "Hungry Heart" and the Top 40 hit "Fade Away." (In 1981-
1982, Gary U.S. Bonds reached the Top 40 with two Springsteen compositions, "This Little Girl" and "Out of Work.") But
having finally topped the charts, Springsteen experimented on his next album, preferring the demo recordings of the songs
he had made for Nebraska (September 1982) to full-band studio versions, especially given the dark subject matter of
his lyrics. The stark LP nevertheless hit the Top Ten and sold a million copies without benefit of a hit single or a promotional
tour. Van Zandt amicably left the E Street Band for a solo career at this point and was replaced by Nils Lofgren.
But then came Born in the U.S.A. (June 1984) and a two-year international tour. The album hit number one, threw off
seven Top Ten hits ("Dancing in the Dark," which earned Springsteen his first Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal
Performance, "Cover Me," "Born in the U.S.A.," "I'm on Fire," "Glory Days," "I'm Goin' Down," and "My Hometown"), and sold
15 million copies, putting Springsteen in the pop heavens with Michael Jackson and Prince. For his next album, he finally
exploited his reputation as a live performer by releasing the
five-LP/three-CD box set Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live/1975-85 (November 1986), which topped the
charts, was certified platinum 13 times, and spawned a Top Ten hit in a cover of Edwin Starr's "War." Shortly thereafter, in
March 1987, "the Barbusters" (actually Joan Jett & the Blackhearts) took Springsteen's composition "Light of Day," written for
the movie of the same name, into the Top 40.
Characteristically, Springsteen returned to studio work with a more introverted effort, Tunnel of Love (October 1987),
which presaged his 1989 divorce from his first wife, actress Julianne Phillips. (He married a second time to
singer/songwriter/guitarist Patti Scialfa, who had joined the E Street Band as a backup vocalist in 1984.) The album was
another number one hit, selling three million copies and producing two Top Ten singles, "Brilliant Disguise" and the title song,
as well as the Top 40 hit "One Step Up." The album earned him a second male rock vocal Grammy. In the spring of 1988,
Natalie Cole covered the Springsteen B-side "Pink Cadillac" for a Top Ten hit.
Springsteen retreated from public view in the late '80s, breaking up the E Street Band in November 1989. He returned to
action in March 1992 with a new backup band, simultaneously releasing two albums, Human Touch and Lucky Town,
which entered the charts at numbers two and three, respectively, each going platinum. A double-sided single combining
"Human Touch" and "Better Days" was a Top 40 hit. Of course, this was a relative fall-off from the commercial heights of the
mid-'80s, but Springsteen was undeterred. He next contributed the moody ballad "Streets of Philadelphia" to the soundtrack
of Philadelphia, film director Jonathan Demme's 1993 depiction of a lawyer fighting an unjust termination for AIDS. The
recording became a Top Ten hit, and the song went on to win Springsteen four Grammys (Song of the Year, Best Rock Song,
best song written for a motion picture or television, and another for male rock vocal) and the Academy Award for best song.
In early 1995, Springsteen reconvened the E Street Band to record a few new tracks for his Greatest Hits (February
1995). The album topped the charts and sold four million copies, with one of the new songs, "Secret Garden," eventually
reaching the Top 40. Despite this success, Springsteen resisted the temptation to reunite with the E Street Band on an
ongoing basis at this point, instead recording another low-key, downcast, near-acoustic effort in the style of Nebraska,
The Ghost of Tom Joad (November 1995) and embarking on a solo tour to promote it. The LP won a Grammy for best
contemporary folk album, but it missed the Top Ten and only went gold.
A much more prolific songwriter and recording artist than what was reflected in his legitimately released discography,
Springsteen went into his vault of unreleased material and assembled the four-CD box set Tracks (November 1998),
which went platinum. Whether inspired by the playing he heard on those recordings, bowing to constant fan pressure, or
simply recognizing the musicians with whom he had made his most successful music, Springsteen finally reunited the E Street
Band in 1999, beginning with a performance at his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. All the members from the
1974-1989 edition of the group returned. (Characteristically, Springsteen sidestepped the question of whether to use Van
Zandt or Lofgren in the guitar position by rehiring both of them.) They embarked on a world tour that lasted until mid-2000,
its final dates resulting in the album Live in New York City, which hit the Top Ten and sold a million copies.
Springsteen's writing process in coming up with a new rock album to be recorded with members of the E Street Band was
given greater impetus in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the resulting disc, The Rising
(July 2002), contained songs that reflected on the tragedy. The album hit number one and sold two million copies, winning
the Grammy for rock album, as the title song won for rock song and male rock vocal. Following another lengthy tour with the
E Street Band, Springsteen again returned to the style and mood of Nebraska on another solo recording, Devils &
Dust (April 2005), taking to the road alone to promote it. The album hit number one and went gold, winning a Grammy for
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. One year later, Springsteen unveiled another new musical approach when he presented
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (April 2006), an album on which he played new arrangements of folk songs
associated with Pete Seeger, played by a specially assembled Sessions Band. The album reached the Top Ten and went gold
as Springsteen toured with the group. It also won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. The tour led to a concert
recording, Live in Dublin (June 2007), which reached the Top 40.
Once again, Springsteen recorded a new rock album, Magic (October 2007), as a precursor to re-forming the E Street
Band and going out on another long tour. The album hit number one and went platinum, with the song "Radio Nowhere"
earning Grammys for rock song and solo rock vocal. (Another track from the album, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," won the
rock song Grammy the following year.) Sadly, longtime E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici succumbed to a three-year
battle with melanoma on April 17, 2008, his death causing the first irrevocable change in the group's personnel. Federici was
replaced by Charles Giordano who had played with Springsteen previously in the Sessions Band.
Springsteen finished the tour in 2008 and held several additional shows in support of Senator Barack Obama, whose
presidential campaign had kicked into hyperdrive earlier that year. While playing an Obama rally in early November,
Springsteen debuted material from his forthcoming album, Working on a Dream, whose tracks had been recorded with
the E Street Band during breaks in the group's previous tour. The resulting album, which was the last to feature contributions
from Federici (as well as his son, Jason), arrived on January 27, 2009, one week after Obama's historic inauguration. It
immediately hit number one, Springsteen's ninth album to top the charts over a period of three decades, and it went on to
win him another Grammy for solo rock vocal and to go gold. In February, Springsteen and the E Street Band provided the
half-time entertainment at Super Bowl XLIII. The group's tour, which featured full-length performances of some of
Springsteen's classic albums at selected shows, ran through November 22, 2009. In December, the 60-year-old was ranked
fourth among the top touring acts of the first decade of the 21st century, behind only the Rolling Stones, U2, and Madonna.
The same month he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
Springsteen's 2010 was devoted to a revival of Darkness on the Edge of Town, with the 1978 masterpiece receiving an
expanded box set called The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town; the set contained a feature-length
documentary and a double-disc set of outtakes which was also available separately. As Springsteen began work on a studio
album produced by Ron Aniello, who previously worked with Patti Scialfa, Clarence Clemons died from complications from a
stroke on June 18, 2011. Clemons' last recorded solo appeared on "Land of Hope and Dreams," one of many politically
charged songs on the resulting album, Wrecking Ball. Supported by a major media blitz that included a showcase week
of Bruce covers on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Boss delivering a keynote address at South by Southwest,
Wrecking Ball appeared the first week of March 2012.
In 2014, Springsteen released High Hopes, which promptly reached number one on the Billboard charts. In 2016,
he released Chapter and Verse, a compilation album that served as the musical companion to his autobiography Born
to Run, also released in 2016.
In 2018, Springsteen appeared in Springsteen on Broadway, a one-man Broadway show that featured Springsteen
playing solo, reading from his Born to Run bio, and telling various other personal anecdotes. The original eight-week
limited run was extended three times, running from October 12 through December 15 of 2018. A live album of the
performance was released, and made number 11 on the Billboard 200. On December 15, the performance on the album
was released on Netflix as a special.
In 2019, Springsteen released Western Stars, his first new studio album in five years. « hide |
Similar Bands: John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Gaslight Anthem |
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| LPs |  | Only the Strong Survive
2022
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 | Letter to You
2020
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 | Western Stars
2019
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 | High Hopes
2014
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 | Wrecking Ball
03/06/2012
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 | Working on a Dream
2009
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 | Magic
2007
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 | We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
2006
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 | Devils & Dust
2005
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 | The Rising
2002
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 | The Ghost of Tom Joad
1995
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 | Lucky Town
1992
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 | Human Touch
1992
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 | Tunnel of Love
1987
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 | Born in the U.S.A.
1984
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 | Nebraska
1982
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 | The River
1980
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 | Darkness on the Edge of Town
1978
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 | Born to Run
1975
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 | The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
1973
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 | Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
1973
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| EPs |  | American Beauty
2014
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 | Magic Tour Highlights
2008
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 | Blood Brothers
1996
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 | Chimes of Freedom
1988
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| Live Albums |  | The Live Series: Songs on Keys
2023
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 | The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts
2021
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 | Western Stars – Songs From the Film
2019
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 | Springsteen on Broadway
2018
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 | The Roxy 1975
2018
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 | Wembley Arena June 5, 1981
2018
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 | The Roxy July 7, 1978
2018
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 | Brendan Byrne Arena, NJ August 20, 1984
2018
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 | Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ September 20, 1978
2017
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 | The Summit, Houston, TX December 08, 1978
2017
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 | Palace Theatre, Albany 1977
2017
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 | Auditorium Theatre Rochester, NY 1977
2017
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 | Arizona State University, Tempe 1980
2015
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 | LA Sports Arena, California 1988
2015
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 | Brendan Byrne Arena East Rutherford, NJ
2015
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 | Nassau Coliseum, New York 1980
2015
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 | Tower Theater, Philadelphia 1975
2015
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 | The Agora, Cleveland 1978
2014
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 | London Calling: Live in Hyde Park
2010
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 | Live in Dublin: With the Sessions Band
2007
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 | Hammersmith Odeon London '75
2006
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 | Live in New York City
2001
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 | In Concert: MTV Plugged
1997
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 | Live 1975-1985
1986
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| Compilations |  | Best Of Bruce Springsteen
2024
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 | Chapter And Verse
2016
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 | The Promise
2010
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 | The Collection 1973-84
2010
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 | Greatest Hits (2009)
2009
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 | The Essential Bruce Springsteen
2003
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 | 18 Tracks
1999
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 | Before The Fame
1999
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 | Tracks
1998
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 | Greatest Hits (1995)
1995
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Contributors: Satellite, Divaman, SteveP, DikkoZinner, ThrashingWhiplash, coneren, Willie, rockandmetaljunkie, Titan50, TheBoss88, AleksiS, Mr_Coffee, loubeaner, Nagrarok, JohnXDoesn't, Distorted Vision, SandwichBubble, Divaman, eddie95, BMDrummer, KILL, AleksiS, TheBoss88, EVedder27, Mikesn, WarAllTheTime988,
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