Many legendary musical artists have never had the honor of recording and releasing a No. 1 pop single in their career. You can count Bruce Springsteen among those artists. But one of his songs did make it to the top in a version by another band. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s cover of “Blinded By The Light” made it all the way to the top in 1977. So why, then, wasn’t The Boss so crazy about it?
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“Light Creation”
Bruce Springsteen made “Blinded By The Light” his first-ever single release in 1973. It also held pride of place as the first song on his very first album (Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.) Ironically, the song actually came pretty late in the process of making that first record.
Columbia executive Clive Davis took a listen to an early version of that LP and didn’t think that there was anything resembling a single on it. Springsteen went back to the drawing board and came up with “Blinded By The Light”. He used a rhyming dictionary to help him concoct the wild lyrical structure of the song.
Unfortunately, the song failed to make any kind of a dent on the public. It wouldn’t be until “Born To Run” made Springsteen a national name in 1975 that he’d get that kind of exposure. As a result, the material from his first two albums was ripe for rediscovery. A prog rock band led by a veteran who’d known his share of hits took advantage.
Mann’s Take
Manfred Mann ended up with his name on the marquee throughout his career, even though he wasn’t a lead singer. The keyboardist who hailed from South Africa let others take the mic on big 60s smashes like “Do Wah Diddy” and “The Mighty Quinn”. But the band that scored those hits was named after him.
Mann briefly got involved with a fusion outfit known as Manfred Mann Chapter Three in the early 70s. But he wanted to get back to a more rock-oriented approach, which is why he formed Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Right from the start, this band would take songs from esteemed rock songwriters, such as Bob Dylan and Randy Newman, and put a prog-rock spin on them.
Mann worked up a version of “Blinded By The Light” that featured his chirping keyboards and a surprising moment where the melody of “Chopsticks” pops up. He decided to record it on the Earth Band’s 1976 album The Roaring Silence. Chris Thompson, who had recently joined the band, handled lead vocals.
Lyrical Distress
The bold take on the song immediately grabbed rock audiences before crossing over to pop radio. Mann’s take on “Blinded By The Light” sailed all the way to No. 1 in the US charts in 1977. Everybody was happy with it. All except the man who wrote the song.
Springsteen’s main bone of contention was the fact that the lyrics had been altered, specifically the line “Cut loose like a Deuce.” The Boss was referring to an automobile. But the Mann version came out sounding like “Revved up like a do*che,” seemingly alluding to a feminine product.
It seems likely that Thompson actually sang “Deuce” on the recording, but a slight error in the mix made it sound different. In any case, “Blinded By The Light” turned into Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s biggest hit by far. As for Springsteen, he came tantalizingly close to the top spot on his own in 1984 with “Dancing In The Dark”, which stalled out at No. 2.
Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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