Every song mentioned in Bruce Springsteen’s memoir
He may well be one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation, but Bruce Springsteen will happily tell you that he would be nowhere near the icon he is today without the music of others.
In fact, he put it a little harsher himself. “I felt I was an average guy,” he mused, “with a slightly above average gift.” That’s hardly the sort of braggadocio that Muhammad Ali would be proud of. However, that modesty – and that self-evident ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ celebration of the music that came before him – is part of what has made The Boss so bombastically beloved.
Throughout his life, from working the bars in New Jersey to becoming a global superstar, Springsteen has leant heavily on the work of his icons to reach the summit of rock stardom. This is perhaps expressed most profoundly within his memoir Born to Run.
The book provided most fans with an insight into The Boss that few had ever experienced before. Upon every page was a new reason to fall in love with the star as he showcased himself as a true ‘salt of the earth’ performer, one completely emboldened by the world around and humble enough to admit, despite perceptions, his lowly position in it.
Springsteen is a giant on stage but also one of the most normal people to inhabit the spotlight of superstardom. He has remained humble throughout his career, explaining to Fresh Air, “I was nervous about [people like my heroes] losing themselves once they had a certain amount of success, and I wanted to remain grounded.”
This is a primary concern expressed in his New Jersey-based memoir. He wanted to remain the hero-worshipping troubadour people could relate to when he was playing bars at night as he cut his teeth. He wanted to remain enthused by his icons. So, he dedicated reams of pages to the songs that still move him in his book.
Now, if you’re a big Springsteen fan, you’ll already be able to guess some of the additions on this playlist. On there, you’ll find tributes to some of the finest rock and roll merchants in the 20th century, with special praise heaped on the icons of the 1960s, including The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. While the Stones have always shown Springsteen that performing on stage as the years pass by should be as fluid and fun as ever, the former two stars profoundly impacted his life.
For many kids in the heartland of America, in 1964, when The Beatles burst onto the scene in four perfect suits and their mop-top hair, they captured him almost immediately: “In 1964, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ on South Street with my mother driving. I immediately demanded that she let me out, I ran to the bowling alley, ran down a long neon-lit aisle, down the alley into the bowling alley. Ran to the phone booth, got in the phone booth and immediately called my girl and asked, ‘Have you heard this band called The Beatles?’ After that, it was nothing but rock ‘n’ roll and guitars.” Hearing them for the first time was a moment, he profoundly adds, that “just changed the course of my life.”
However, it was Dylan who continued to have the most profound impact on Springsteen’s life. Having covered the freewheelin’ troubadour across most of his career, Springsteen noted when he inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: “It made me feel kind of irresponsibly innocent. And it still does. But it reached down and touched what little worldliness I think a 15-year-old kid, in high school, in New Jersey had in him at the time. Dylan was – he was a revolutionary, man, the way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind.”
He poetically continued, “And he showed us that just because the music was innately physical, it did not mean that it was anti-intellect. He had the vision and the talent to expand a pop song until it contained the whole world. He invented a new way a pop singer could sound. He broke through the limitations of what a recording artist could achieve, and he changed the face of rock and roll forever and ever.”
But there is also room for another stunning singer, the mercurial talent of Roy Orbison. Springsteen once described the bespectacled performer as “unearthly”, continually heaping praise on the star: “Some rock & roll reinforces friendship and community, But for me, Roy’s ballads were always best when you were alone and in the dark. Roy scrapped the idea that you needed verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus to have a hit.”
This is just the tip of the playlist iceberg too. Elsewhere on the list, there are spots for Springsteen’s favourite The Drifters – perhaps the most heavily mentioned group in his memoir – as well as The Shirelles, The Partridge Family, B.B. King, The Crystals and a whole heap more.
Below, we have the perfect playlist for Bruce Springsteen and his fans, as we pick out the songs that have littered his life, and inspired his own art. It’s dripping with aural insight into a satr who never stopped looking up to his heroes even when he joined them.
Every song mentioned in Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography:
- ‘When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain’ – Kate Smith
- ‘Hound Dog’ – Elvis Presley
- ‘Western Movies’ – The Olympics
- ‘Along Came Jones’ – The Coasters
- ‘Sad Monster Piano’ – The Monster Hall…
- ‘Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour’ – Lonnie Donegan
- ‘This Magic Moment’ – The Drifters
- ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ – The Drifters
- ‘Up on the Roof’ – The Drifters
- ‘Teen Angel’ – Mark Dinning
- ‘Rip It Up’ – Little Richard
- ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ – Roy Orbison
- ‘Blue Bayou’ – Roy Orbison
- ‘Good Times’ – Sam Cooke
- ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ – The Beatles
- ‘My Bonnie’ – The Beatles, Tony Sheridan
- ‘Hello, Dolly!’ – Louis Armstrong
- ‘Devil With a Blue Dress On’ – Mitch Ryder
- ‘Lady of Spain’ – Bing Crosby
- ‘Greensleeves’ – Vince Guaraldi Trio
- ‘Honky Tonk’ – Bill Doggett
- ‘Pipeline’ – The Chantays
- ‘Sleep Walk’ – Santo & Johnny
- ‘Apache’ – The Shadows
- ‘Out of Limits’ – The Marketts
- ‘Penetration’ – The Pyramids
- ‘Twist and Shout’ – The Beatles
- ‘It’s All Over Now’ – The Rolling Stones
- ‘You Turn Me On’ – Ian Whitcomb
- ‘In the Mood’ – Glenn Miller
- ‘Wipe Out’ – The Surfaris
- ‘Gloria’ – The Cadillacs
- ‘In the Still of the Night’ – The Five Satins
- ‘What’s Your Name’ – Don & Juan
- ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’ – The Animals
- ‘Tell Him’ – The Exciters
- ‘Happy Together’ – The Turtles
- ‘Kicks’ – Paul Revere & The Raiders
- ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ – Cream
- ‘Mony Mony’ – Tommy James & The Shondells
- ‘Rock Me Baby’ – B.B. King
- ‘Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted’ – The Partridge Family
- ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ – The Shirelles
- ‘Baby It’s You’ – The Shirelles
- ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’ – The Crystals
- ‘The Monkey Time’ – Major Lance
- ‘Astral Weeks’ – Van Morrison
- ‘House of the Rising Sun’ – The Animals
- ‘Friday on My Mind’ – The Easybeats
- ‘My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It’ – Hank Williams
- ‘Wreck on the Highway’ – Roy Acuff
- ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- ‘This Land Is Your Land’ – Woody Guthrie
- ‘I Fought the Law’ – The Bobby Fuller Four
- ‘Gino Is a Coward’ – Gino Washington
- ‘Have Love Will Travel’ – The Sonics
- ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ – The Crystals
- ‘Chimes of Freedom’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘All the Way’ – Frank Sinatra
- ‘My One and Only Love’ – Frank Sinatra
- ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ – Louis Armstrong
- Teach Me Tonight’ – Frank Sinatra
- ‘Only the Lonely’ – Roy Orbison
- ‘How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live’ – Blind Alfred Reed
- ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ – U2
- ‘The Edge of Glory’ – Lady Gaga
- ‘Not Fade Away’ – The Rolling Stones
- ‘Tumbling Dice’ – The Rolling Stones
- ‘High Hopes’ – The Havalinas
- ‘Highway to Hell’ – AC/DC
- ‘Stayin’ Alive’ – Bee Gees
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