Bruce Springsteen’s early albums Born to Run and Greetings from Asbury Park were staples of my high school and college years, and I played many of his ‘80s hits on the radio. But I just learned plenty that I didn’t already know about the Boss. I knew Manfred Mann’s Earth Band did at least three Springsteen songs, but I never knew that the Boss himself never had a #1 hit song.
1. His only no. 1 track occurred when another band covered him
At the top of his game, during the 70s and 80s, Springsteen was a force to be reckoned with. However, he never could quite clench the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. His best performance on the chart was in 1984 when his hit track “Dancing In The Dark” clocked in at #2. Ironically, when Mannfed Mann’s Earth Band did a Springsteen cover of “Blinded By the Light,” which was the opening track of his debut album “Greeting From Ashbury Park, N.J,” it actually hit the number #1 spot in 1977. Until now, the song remains the biggest hit of the band. When he appeared on VH1’s Storytellers in 2005, Springsteen acknowledge how interesting it was that his only number one hit actually came from someone else’s version of his song.
13. Origin of “the Boss”
Most people tend to refer to Bruce Springsteen simply as “The Boss.” However, very few are familiar with the origin of this nickname, let alone the fact that he didn’t like the name in the first place and had to warm to it with time. Springsteen actually got the nickname during his club days, long before he gained the status of a big recording superstar. He was given the responsibility of collecting the band’s compensation from club owners and dispensing it among the other members of the band afterwards. He disliked the term “the Boss” due to his disgust for bosses, and while he had to get used to it sooner rather than later, the nickname never subsided.
You can learn a lot more from a list of 20 things about Bruce Springsteen at Money Inc.
(Image credit: Craig ONeal)