The one Elvis Presley song Bruce Springsteen couldn’t live without: “Hit me like a thunderbolt”
When an artist like Bruce Springsteen builds a career as monumental as his, comparisons are inevitable. From the outset, Springsteen was repeatedly measured against other male musicians armed with acoustic guitars and a penchant for singing about the American experience. Bob Dylan was the most obvious figure to stack him against, especially since Springsteen often covered Dylan’s songs early in his career. However, as his artistry and legacy grew, the only true parallel that could be drawn was with another towering figure in music history: Elvis Presley, ‘The King’.
Springsteen arrived on the scene as a somewhat scruffy folk artist with rock and roll intentions. However, as time passed, the musician’s aspirations grew, and his rebellion grew with it and, soon enough, he was pitched as the all-American heir to Elvis Presley’s throne. He was anointed ‘The Boss’ a little more democratically, but the title was a similar recognition of stately provenance. Growing up as part of the rock and roll generation, the ‘Born to Run’ singer admired Presley more than any individual.
Elvis was the first artist Springsteen fell in love with, and even when he became a superstar in his own right, that obsession still burned brightly. In fact, the plucky Springsteen even tried to track him down and sneak into Graceland on one balmy evening, but, unfortunately, his own clumsiness and on-site security prevented him from meeting his hero.
While on his Born To Run tour, Springsteen and the E-Street Band’s Stevie Van Zandt decided to haul a taxi to the residence after playing a show in Memphis. They got as far as security before they were stopped, and although The Boss had recently been on the front cover of Newsweek and had become a big name on the touring circuit, the pair were informed in no uncertain terms they weren’t allowed inside.
His fascination with Elvis dates back to childhood, and the singer still vividly remembers the first time Presley enriched his life. Springsteen was a seven-year-old child glued to the television and was blown away by the medley of hits performed by the singer whose set included ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, ‘Love Me Tender’, and ‘Hound Dog’.
The latter track particularly stuck with Springsteen, and when he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, he said it was a track he could not live without. If you’re unfamiliar with the show’s format, celebrity guests are tasked with picking eight songs with them to a fictional desert island and a luxury item. Explaining why he picked ‘Hound Dog’, Springsteen reflected on the first time he heard him and said: “When I heard it, it just shot straight through to my brain.”
He added: “I realised, suddenly, that there was more to life than what I’d been living. I was then in pursuit of something and there’d been a vision laid out before me. You were dealing with the pure thrust, the pure energy of the music itself. I was so very young but it still hit me like a thunderbolt.”
Although ‘Hound Dog’ wasn’t initially written for or first performed by Elvis—the track was penned by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for Big Mama Thornton in 1952—Presley’s rendition redefined its place in pop culture. Once The King recorded his iconic vocals, the song’s cultural ownership shifted entirely. Presley’s commanding presence was enough to encourage this transformation, and Springsteen was among the many captivated audience members who willingly acknowledged Presley’s royal claim to the track.
Watching Presley perform ‘Hound Dog’ on The Ed Sullivan Show was the first domino to fall in Springsteen’s career. If that crucial moment had never happened, he might have never picked up a guitar and graduated to becoming The Boss. While comparisons are usually something artists like to avoid, one might imagine Springsteen has enjoyed being lined up next to Presley for the entirety of his career.
