The Top 100 Bruce Springsteen Songs: 10-1
Presenting now, the top ten songs from Bruce Springsteen and the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-shaking, booty-quaking, Viagra-taking, love-making, legendary E! Street! Band!
10. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
Another beautifully told story in a beautifully written and beautifully played song. But extra points, if you will, are awarded to this song for the live version released as part of the “Magic Tour Highlights”, the last time Danny Federici played with the E Street Band before he passed away. There’s a bittersweet moment where you realize they know it’s the last time they’re going to be playing together.
9. The River The River (1980)
To get the full effect of why The River and Growin’ Up are on this list where they are, you need to hear them on the Live ’75-85 box set, introduced by stories about his parents not always understanding their budding bad boy rock star.
8. No Surrender Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
“We busted out of class, had to get away from those fools / We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school…” The perfect song for screaming along to while driving down the freeway at 80-90 miles per hour with the windows rolled down, letting the wind blow back your hair - possibly even moreso than Born to Run.
7. Bobby Jean Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
“Well I came by your house the other day, your mother said you went away / She said there was nothing that I could have done / There was nothing nobody could say / Me and you we’ve known each other ever since we were sixteen / I wished I would have known, I wished I could have called you / Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean.”
6. Badlands Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
“For the ones who had a notion / a notion deep inside / that it ain’t no sin / to be glad you’re alive / I wanna find one face / that ain’t looking through me / I wanna find one place / I wanna spit in the face of these badlands.”
5. Hungry Heart The River (1980)
This song is about a man leaving his wife and kids in Baltimore for another woman. The lyrics could be about clubbing baby seals, and the music and tune would still make this one of the best songs ever written. Listen to the version on the Live ’75-85 set, which has the entire crowd singing the first verse.
4. Thunder Road Born to Run (1975)
Yes, my mother sang this to all her children as a lullaby. This song is beautiful in all its many versions - the album cut, the more acoustic version on the Live ’75-85 box set - or if you can find Melissa Etheridge singing either this or Born to Run, preferably as a duet with Bruce, you are in for a real treat.
3. Born to Run Born to Run (1975)
This is the song. When you think of Bruce Springsteen, you think of this song. I can recognize this song within the first two notes when it comes on the radio, and it’s actually the only song on this list that I can’t turn off when it comes on. Sometimes Rosalita is too long, sometimes Thunder Road is too soft, but this song is perfect no matter where you find yourself.
2. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
“Now I know your mama, she don’t like me ‘cause I play in a rock and roll band / And I know your daddy, he don’t dig me but he never did understand / Papa lowered the boom, locked you in your room / Well, I’m coming to lend a hand / Coming to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man / Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny / But now you’re sad, your mama’s mad / And your papa says he knows that I don’t have any money…”
1. Jungleland Born to Run (1975)
The story this song tells is so beautiful, so visual, and so real. “Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge / Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain /…/ Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl /…/ The midnight gang’s assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night / They’ll meet ‘neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light.” However, what truly makes this song the greatest Bruce Springsteen song ever, and therefore quite simply, the greatest song ever, is the saxophone solo played by one Clarence Clemons that is over three minuets long, and yet every single second of it is so crucially necessary, you can’t imagine the song or the band any other way.
10. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
Another beautifully told story in a beautifully written and beautifully played song. But extra points, if you will, are awarded to this song for the live version released as part of the “Magic Tour Highlights”, the last time Danny Federici played with the E Street Band before he passed away. There’s a bittersweet moment where you realize they know it’s the last time they’re going to be playing together.
9. The River The River (1980)
To get the full effect of why The River and Growin’ Up are on this list where they are, you need to hear them on the Live ’75-85 box set, introduced by stories about his parents not always understanding their budding bad boy rock star.
8. No Surrender Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
“We busted out of class, had to get away from those fools / We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school…” The perfect song for screaming along to while driving down the freeway at 80-90 miles per hour with the windows rolled down, letting the wind blow back your hair - possibly even moreso than Born to Run.
7. Bobby Jean Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
“Well I came by your house the other day, your mother said you went away / She said there was nothing that I could have done / There was nothing nobody could say / Me and you we’ve known each other ever since we were sixteen / I wished I would have known, I wished I could have called you / Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean.”
6. Badlands Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
“For the ones who had a notion / a notion deep inside / that it ain’t no sin / to be glad you’re alive / I wanna find one face / that ain’t looking through me / I wanna find one place / I wanna spit in the face of these badlands.”
5. Hungry Heart The River (1980)
This song is about a man leaving his wife and kids in Baltimore for another woman. The lyrics could be about clubbing baby seals, and the music and tune would still make this one of the best songs ever written. Listen to the version on the Live ’75-85 set, which has the entire crowd singing the first verse.
4. Thunder Road Born to Run (1975)
Yes, my mother sang this to all her children as a lullaby. This song is beautiful in all its many versions - the album cut, the more acoustic version on the Live ’75-85 box set - or if you can find Melissa Etheridge singing either this or Born to Run, preferably as a duet with Bruce, you are in for a real treat.
3. Born to Run Born to Run (1975)
This is the song. When you think of Bruce Springsteen, you think of this song. I can recognize this song within the first two notes when it comes on the radio, and it’s actually the only song on this list that I can’t turn off when it comes on. Sometimes Rosalita is too long, sometimes Thunder Road is too soft, but this song is perfect no matter where you find yourself.
2. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
“Now I know your mama, she don’t like me ‘cause I play in a rock and roll band / And I know your daddy, he don’t dig me but he never did understand / Papa lowered the boom, locked you in your room / Well, I’m coming to lend a hand / Coming to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man / Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny / But now you’re sad, your mama’s mad / And your papa says he knows that I don’t have any money…”
1. Jungleland Born to Run (1975)
The story this song tells is so beautiful, so visual, and so real. “Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge / Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain /…/ Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl /…/ The midnight gang’s assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night / They’ll meet ‘neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light.” However, what truly makes this song the greatest Bruce Springsteen song ever, and therefore quite simply, the greatest song ever, is the saxophone solo played by one Clarence Clemons that is over three minuets long, and yet every single second of it is so crucially necessary, you can’t imagine the song or the band any other way.