10 Things You Might Not Know About Bruce Springsteen
Nicknamed “The Boss,” Bruce Springsteen is widely known for his brand of poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, and working class and sometimes political sentiments centered on his native New Jersey. His stage performances are lengthy and energetic, with concerts from the 1970s to the present decade, running over three hours in length. His most successful studio albums, Born to Run (1975) and Born in the U.S.A. (1984), showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life. He has sold more than 60 million albums in the U.S. and more than 120 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.
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Springsteen was inspired to take up music at the age of seven after seeing Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 and growing up hearing fellow New Jersey singer, Frank Sinatra on the radio. Sinatra also inspired his style of songwriting, which was developed in his youth after his mother bought him his first guitar for $18
In the late 1960s, Springsteen acquired the nickname "The Boss" because when he played club gigs with a band he took on the task of collecting their nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. The nickname also reportedly sprang from games of Monopoly that he would play with other Jersey Shore musicians
From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill. Originally called Child, they changed to Steel Mill after discovering another band from Long Island was also using the name Child and had just released an album under that name
Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972 with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band, although it would not be formally named as such until September 1974
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. was Springsteen’s debut studio album, released January 5, 1973. It only sold about 25,000 copies in the first year of its release, but had significant critical impact. The album hit Number 60 on the Billboard 200 albums listing
Blinded by the Light" was released as a single, but did not make a dent in the U.S. charts. Manfred Mann's Earth Band released a version of the song on their album The Roaring Silence, which reached Number 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 in February 1977. This recording of the song is Springsteen's only Number 1 single as a songwriter on the Hot 100
Born to Run was Springsteen's third studio album released August 25, 1975. The album was a commercial success, peaking at Number 3 on the Billboard 200 and eventually selling six million copies in the U.S. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, the album is considered to be Springsteen's finest work
The Big Man” was a prominent member of the E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. Clemons suffered a stroke on June 12, 2011, and died of complications from it on June 18. Three years following his death, Clemons, along with the rest of the E Street Band, was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
