Bruce Springsteen - Rock & Roll‏

by Brent Warnken

Bruce Springsteen is an established star who can look back on his career and say he produced one of the best-selling albums of all time, won Grammy awards and an Oscar, and sold out shows for each concert. Get Bruce Springsteen tickets and see a legend on stage.

In 2002, the Boss released his first full-length studio album to feature his band as a whole since Born in the U.S.A., The Rising. After coming back from a successful tour, the group released Devils and Dust (2005). One year later, Springsteen released his first covers album of his career; a tribute to the songs of Pete Seeger called We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. The singer then returned to the E Street Band and released the Magic in the fall of 2007.

Growing up in southern New Jersey, Springsteen turned to rock & roll and performed with many bands during the mid-'60s. His music varied from garage to blues-rock. By the early '70s, the Boss had picked up on being a folky singer/songwriter in Greenwich Village.

Columbia Records signed the talented singer in 1972, and Springsteen brought his Jersey-based musicians with whom he'd played with over the years into the studio. They produced Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (January 1973), which went unnoticed when it was released. The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (September 1973) also was overlooked even after rave reviews (both albums have since gone Platinum).

By 1974, the Boss revised his group and called them the E Street Band, which included saxophone player Clarence Clemons, Bassist Garry Tallent, second guitarist Steve Van Zandt, pianist Roy Bittan, organist Danny Federici, and drummer Max Weinberg. When Born to Run (August 1975) was released, Springsteen's critics sided with him, and the title song became a Top 40 hit while the album reached the Top Ten.

His fourth album, Darkness on the Edge of Town (June 1978), was not as successful as Born to Run. The Boss returned with the double album, The River (October 1980), which topped the charts and featured Springsteen's first Top Ten hit, "Hungry Heart." The group released Born in the U.S.A. (June 1984) and went on a two-year international tour. That record pumped out seven hits singles and sold over ten million copies, putting the Boss in the pop heavens with Michael Jackson and Prince.

In November 1989, Springsteen broke up the band that stayed together for 15 years to pursue other projects. In March 1992, he released Human Touch and Lucky Town. The boss continued to tour until 1993, when he wrote and recorded "Streets of Philadelphia" for the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The movie was about a lawyer dying of AIDS. The song became a Top Ten hit in 1994, winning the Academy Award for Best Song. "Streets of Philadelphia" also earned the singer a Grammy Award.

During this time Springsteen got his band together and finalized his Greatest Hits album (February 1995). The album became a best-seller and the group followed it up with The Ghost of Tom Joad (November 1995). After the Boss was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he embarked on a world tour with his band that lasted until the mid-2000.

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