Today’s edition of this series will be all about the award-winning rock and roll living legend Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen, who turns 64 today!
To browse this gallery please read this post on our website
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born in New Jersey to parents of Dutch, Irish, and Italian ancestry. As a seven-year old boy, he was inspired to become a musician after seeing The King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
As a young man, throughout the mid-‘60s until the early ‘70s, Springsteen had already performed with seven bands, including The Castiles, Earth, and The Bruce Springsteen Band.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Photo via the official Bruce Springsteen website
The E Street Band, Springsteen’s famous backing band composed of some of his colleagues from New Jersey, was formed in 1972. The following year saw the releases of his first two albums, “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” and “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” – both praised by critics but almost ignored by the public at the time.
To browse this gallery please read this post on our website
But in 1975, Springsteen was finally able to achieve both critical and commercial success with the release of his third album, “Born to Run.” It’s not only dubbed as one of the best albums of all time by music fans and various musical entities, this album was even inducted to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2003!
Album cover via the official Bruce Springsteen website
Video via YouTube
Springsteen’s career continued to rise from then on, having been able to hold sold-out world tours and release numerous hits and 14 more albums between 1978 and 2012.
Album cover via the official Bruce Springsteen website
His 1984 album “Born in the U.S.A,” in particular, is touted as Springsteen’s most successful album ever. It was 1985’s best-selling album, with seven out of its 12 tracks becoming Top 10 hits: Dancing in the Dark, Cover Me, Born in the U.S.A., I’m on Fire, Glory Days, I’m Going Down, and My Hometown. With countless achievements gained in the following decades, finally, in 1999, Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
More recently, his latest album “Wrecking Ball” was released just last year. This marks Springsteen’s 10th number 1 album, the same number as his early inspiration Elvis Presley’s!
Not surprisingly, Springsteen continues to reap honors and make relevant and good music until this day. Needless to say, our generation is very lucky to be able to still hear his music that speaks of his personal thoughts and experiences!
All information were sourced from Wikipedia and Great American Things.
Like this article? Check out the Icons in Focus series in the Lomography Magazine!