Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen: The making of the Boss's breakthrough hit

31 July 2024, 11:33

Bruce Springsteen broke through with the title track from his third album.

Bruce Springsteen had been around a while by the time he released Born to Run.

His debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and follow-up The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle were rightly critically acclaimed, but it wasn't until his third album that he truly broke through to the mainstream.

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The title track and lead single 'Born to Run' marked the emergence of a superstar.

Bruce would go on to release even bigger songs in the years and decades that followed, but 'Born to Run' would remain a touchstone. It's the song he's played most in concert over his stellar career.

Read on for everything you ever might want to know about his stomping classic.

Who wrote 'Born to Run'?

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run (Official Video)

From 'Twist & Shout' to 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town', Bruce Springsteen is a fantastic interpreter of other people's music.

But he's also one of the greatest American songwriters in history, and rarely needed a helping hand.

It actually wasn't until 1992's Human Touch that any of Bruce Springsteen's studio albums included a song not wholly written by the man himself.

So 'Born to Run'? Written by Bruce Springsteen, of course.

Who plays what on 'Born to Run'?

Bruce Springsteen had been more than capably backed by the E Street Band all the way back in 1972, even though they didn't actually assume that name until 1974.

So even though they only had the main man's name on the front, it's the E Street Band lending a hand on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle and Born to Run.

To be more precise, on 'Born to Run' that's The Boss on vocals and guitars. The Big Man Clarence Clemons is on sax. Ernest 'Boom' Carter on drums. Garry Tallent on bass. Danny Federici on organ and glockenspiel. David Sancious on piano, Fender Rhodes and synth.

While he wasn't yet a member of the E Street Band – he would officially join during the Born to Run tour that year – Steven Van Zandt sorted the horn arrangement on the album's 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out'.

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London '75)

And there's a quote that always does the rounds suggesting that he played a role in that riff on 'Born to Run', with Bruce calling it "arguably Steve's greatest contribution to my music", but Steven himself later set the record straight.

"No! I wish! It’s a long story, but basically… I fixed it," he told Vice, explaining that Bruce had put absolutely everything into this one song that was supposed to save his career.

"I’m like, 'That’s great! I really love that minor key riff! It’s so Roy Orbison, or like something The Beatles would have done'.

"He looks at me like, 'What minor riff?' I go, 'You know, the minor chord in the riff!'. He goes, 'There’s no f**king minor chord in the riff, what are you talking about?'."

Born to Run

It turned out that Bruce was doing a Duane Eddy note-bending drenched in reverb, which covered up that minor shift.

"Finally, he hears it! He was like, 'Oh my f**king God!'. He broke the news to the powers that be. Oh, did they hate me. They had to redo it," Van Zandt added.

"He credits me with saving his career, which I probably did – more than once, by the way! It was really just a matter of fixing something. It changed the emotion of it. It was still great before, but it wasn’t quite as uplifting."

There's also some session players, names unknown, adding strings, tambourines and backing vocals.

What is 'Born to Run' actually about?

The spark that triggered 'Born to Run' actually came two years before the song was recorded, when Bruce was touring in Tennessee on the heels of his first two albums released that year.

Bruce apparently woke up with the phrase "Born to Run" in his head and wrote it down.

Those simple three words were turned into the song we all know (and very much love).

The song is about four things: love ("Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend"), fast cars ("Chrome wheeled, fuel injected"), fast cars as a euphemism for you-know-what ("wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims") and most of all, ESCAPE ("We're gonna get to that place").

Who is Wendy in the 'Born to Run' lyrics? Is she a real person?

No-one knows for sure if Wendy was just a cool-sounding name for 'Born to Run', or a nod to a real or imaginary person.

Some have claimed it's a reference to childhood friend Wendy Cook. Others suggest it's a nod to the character from Peter Pan.

Bruce has never confirmed this one way or the other, but student archivist Carlee Migliorisi dug out a 1975 issuer of Crawdaddy with Springsteen on the cover that may give the strongest clue as to who's right.

In the article, editor and writer Pete Knobler noted that the cottage in Long Branch, New Jersey where Springsteen lived while recording the album featured a poster of Peter Pan leading Wendy out the window.

“All of the arrows are pointing in the direction of Springsteen sitting at the edge of his bed, looking up above his headboard," she said. "And there, right above him, are Wendy and Peter Pan."

When was 'Born to Run' released and where did it get in the charts?

'Born to Run' was released as a single on August 25, 1975, with 'Meeting Across the River' on the B-side, a song that also appeared on the Born to Run album. That album was released on exactly the same day.

'Born to Run' peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, which might not sound all that much given how famous the song has become, but it's worth noting that it was his very first charting single anywhere in the world.

Despite the obvious quality of his first two albums, it felt like there was a real risk of Bruce being dropped had 'Born to Run' not been a hit.

Over the years the song has gone double platinum in the US and platinum in the UK.

Its parent album went platinum in the UK and SEVEN TIMES platinum in the US.

Who has covered to 'Born to Run'

Born To Run

Interestingly enough, Bruce Springsteen wasn't actually the first person to record 'Born to Run' in the studio... or at least to finish recording it.

He had been playing the song for a while in concert and was in the middle of his tortuous six-month sessions to get this all-important song just right.

Apparently working from Bruce's scratch recording of the track, Allan Clarke of the Hollies actually snuck in first with his completed version.

"I was just knocked out with the sound and the energy of 'Born To Run'. It made me just want to do that track, I just wanted to sing it," Clarke said in 2010.

Born To Run

"So I went in the studio and I recorded it. I was very, very pleased with the outcome."

Wise heads and a sense of fairness apparently prevailed, and the release of Clarke's version was delayed until Bruce had released his version first.

After Bruce recorded the song, a few other major artists gave it a go,

Frankie Goes To Hollywood offered a surprisingly faithful on their classic Welcome To The Pleasuredome album.

Since then, other covers have come from the likes of Suzi Quatro, Joey Tempest, Adam Green and Frank Turner.