Picking ten Bruce Springsteen tracks to rank is a near impossible task. The American legend has released 21 albums over the last five decades, won 20 Grammys and has sold more than 140 million records worldwide – with half of these sale in America – which puts him in the top 30 selling artists of all time.
He’s also now making history, as the first international songwriter to be recognised by The Ivors Academy. The UK-based organisation supports music writers, and hosts the annual Ivor Novello songwriting awards. Springsteen is to be awarded a Ivor Academy Fellowship to commemorate his “outstanding contribution to the craft of songwriting”.
Elsewhere, Jeremy Allen White is rumoured to be playing The Boss in an upcoming biopic.
These achievements speak for themselves, but Springsteen’s success should also be measured beyond the numbers. While he’s smashed records and made history left, right and centre, it’s the lasting cultural impact of his music which ranks him as one of the greatest artists of all time.
“Bruce Springsteen is the greatest storyteller in the history of popular music,” explained Evening Standard’s David Hepworth this week.
So, where to start when picking out his top songs? We’ve gone for the moments that continue to move us, even after hundreds of plays, songs that defined a moment, and the tracks that stand head and shoulders above others in the genre.
10. Atlantic City (1982)
Springsteen’s 1982 record Nebraska, his sixth studio album, was more obviously sombre than his previous works. He addressed familiar topics such as blue-collar workers, love, and life’s challenges, but with a little less of his usual musical optimism. Atlantic City epitomises this tone shift: “Well, now, everything dies, baby, that’s a fact,” sings Springsteen, and later: “Now, our luck may have died, and our love may be cold.”
Despite the gloomy atmosphere (or perhaps because of it) it really works. Springsteen’s harmonica blasts through the heart of the track, and there’s an echo on his vocal which gives it extra energy. “I wanted the music to feel like a waking dream and the record to move like poetry,” said Springsteen in his book Songs. The lyric “but maybe everything that dies someday comes back,” is the song’s more hopeful edge, also propelling the song forward.
9. Jungleland (1975)
Running at 10 minutes long, it is hard to describe Jungleland – as NME did – as anything other than an “epic masterpiece”. It pulls together all of his favourite themes (such as love, hope, and overcoming hardships), and seems to have been written specifically for his hardcore fans (who else has the patience for a 10-minute track, even if it is a banger?) He touches on the police, gangs and death, but also follows its Magic Rat protagonist as he drives across the George Washington Bridge to see a barefoot girl in New Jersey, where they take a “stab at romance”.
“The details are secondary,” explained Billboard. “It’s written in code,” said Vulture. “It’s one of his definitive songs, but it’s also one of the most inscrutable.” We love it for its grandeur and ambitions, plus The E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons is on top form with one of his best-ever sax solos.
8. Badlands (1978)
Badlands is a fan favourite for its hope and defiance, with the line “It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive” perfectly summing up its energy. A song about an angry man reflecting on his fortune – “I wanna spit in the face of these / Badlands, you gotta live it everyday” he says – the song perfectly tapped into the zeitgeist when it was released in the late Seventies. American politics was turning to the right (Reagan would win the 1980 election), and in 1979 President Carter would bemoan “the crisis of the American spirit”.
But today the song still hits: after all, feeling down on one’s luck is a universally-felt frustration. Come for the sax solo, and stay for a winning chorus. Springsteen is rarely so commanding, and it makes Badlands a real winner.
7. Tougher Than The Rest (1987)
A love story with a lot of synth, Tougher Than The Rest stands out for its warmth and charm. The song was much more of a hit with Springsteen’s European fans than with his US supporters when it was released, which could be because it’s less obviously about the American dream (even though it follows lots of his usual themes such as not giving up and being tough).
The song is about finding love as an adult (Springsteen was 38 when the song was released), which is reflected in a softer approach. “Well it ain’t no secret / I’ve been around a time or two,” sings Bruce. “...Well there’s another dance.”
6. The River (1980)
There’s Thunder Road (which we’ve, spoiler, put higher up our list) and then The River, which surely both rank among Springsteen’s saddest songs ever. “The River is Thunder Road with all the hope sucked out of it,” said NME. And although we agree, we love it all the same.
It’s partly because of Springsteen’s masterful use of his harmonica, and partly because of the love story at the heart of the song. The River, which is a tribute to Springsteen’s sister and brother-in-law, tells the story of two young lovers, a pregnancy, and a hasty wedding, amid economic struggles, and fragile hopes and dreams. “I remember us riding in my brother’s car / Her body tan and wet, down at the reservoir... And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take /Now those memories come back to haunt me.” A real tear-jerker, then.
5. Born In The U.S.A. (1984)
Possibly The Boss’ most memorable song – a real karaoke banger – this track is often hijacked by right wing nationalists. When Trump was suffering with Covid, it was blasted outside the hospital where he was being treated, and it’s also been a favourite at Republican rallies for decades. But it’s a misreading of the song to take its title at face value.
Partly inspired by Ron Kovic’s 1976 autobiography Born on the Fourth of July (a book about a Vietnam vet who turns against the war), it’s actually a critique of US national identity, and the troubled homecoming of a soldier from war.
4. Dancing In The Dark (1984)
This song is underpinned by bright energy, which is partly why it ranks so highly on our list. Stick it on and no matter what kind of day you’re having, by the end of it, you can be sure that you’ll feel so much better. It was the first time that Springsteen added synthesiser riffs into his songs, which of course some fans criticised. But for us, it’s all part of the Eighties magic. It became one of his biggest songs of all time, peaking at number two in the American charts in 1984, and remaining in the top 100 chart list for 21 weeks.
3. Darkness On the Edge of Town (1978)
Sure, this is not a happy song by any means. “Well now I lost my money and I lost my wife / Them things don’t seem to matter much to me now,” Springsteen sings.
But in true Springsteen style, it’s also about doing your best in the face of life’s difficulties. There’s drama, but he’s typically pragmatic about it. “Tonight I’ll be on that hill ‘cause I can’t stop / I’ll be on that hill with everything I got,” he says. The closer from Springsteen’s 1978 album is intense, moody, and really pinpoints that feeling we all get sometimes when things aren’t going our way.
2. Thunder Road (1975)
Where to start with Thunder Road? The opening track of his 1975 breakthrough album Born To Run is about the love between someone called Mary and her boyfriend, and their last chance at love. “Hey, I know it’s late, we can make it if we run,” says Bruce. “With a chance to make it good somehow / Hey what else can we do now?”
We love a good love song with a hint of peril, and Springsteen does it so well. There are those simple piano chords opening the track, suggesting something new and hopeful. There’s his harmonica, The E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons’ saxophone solo, and a pervasive confidence and energy nearly unmatched in Springsteen’s other songs.
1. Born to Run (1975)
Our number one Springsteen song of all time is Born to Run – arguably an obvious choice. Pitchfork, on its 30th anniversary called it “a distinctive record, even in the Springsteen canon”. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 21 in its 2014 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
As Springsteen sings “The highway’s jammed with broken heroes / On a last chance power drive... We’re gonna get to that place / Where we really wanna go and we’ll walk in the sun”. The E Street Band back up his honeyed voice – Tallent’s bass, Federici’s organ, Ernest “Boom” Carter’s drums are all on top form, as ever – and it’s a real summation of everything that The Boss is about: think motorcycles and romance, freedom and ambition. If it wasn’t Springsteen, it might be called a cliché. But it is Springsteen, so it’s perfect.
