Videos by American Songwriter
The Huffington Post has printed a list of the Top 25 Bruce Springsteen songs, as conceived by Ben Mankiewicz, a host at Turner Home Movies.
We give him props for thinking outside the box and selecting songs off Magic, The Seeger Sessions, Lucky Town and Tracks. And we recognize that he’s not really trying to be an authoritative voice: “The criteria are flexible. They’re a combination of songwriting, listening pleasure, live performance and at what point in the song I begin to cry like an 11-year-old girl.”
The Huffington Post’s Springsteen List:
#1: Backstreets
#2: The Price You Pay
#3: Incident On 57th Street
#4: Darkness On The Edge Of Town
#5: Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
#6: This American Land
#7: The Ghost Of Tom Joad
#8: Growin’ Up
#9: Racing In The Streets
#10: Born To Run
#11: Tougher Than The Rest
#12: Reason To Believe
#13: Atlantic City
#14: The Rising
#15: Youngstown
#16: Ramrod
#17: Thunder Road
#18: Cynthia
#19: Downbound Train
#20: Murder Incorporated
#21: Magic
#22: This Hard Land
#23: Glory Days
#24: Factory
#25: Lucky Town
Give us your Top Ten in the comments section.
This list is an absolute joke. Arianna Huffington should resign and move back to Greece because of this. “Murder Incorporated” would not have made Boy George’s Top 25 List, had he/she written the tune.
With the much-anticipated release of the commemorative box set for Darkness on the Edge of Town slated for this November, Bruce Springsteen’s classic record is getting renewed attention in the music world. Fans are surely hungry for all the historic material they can get from the 1978 recording sessions and subsequent tour.
For our own preview of what’s to come, we contacted Dick Wingate, who was intimately involved in the launch and marketing of the album and tour. He offers an insider’s view of what the Darkness era meant to Bruce and the band, while painting an often-humorous behind-the-scenes account of some of the tour’s highlights. Enjoy, and be certain to check out the book The Light in Darkness, which one fan said, “… would make a great companion piece to the commemorative Darkness box set…”
Glad to see Racing in the Streets and Downbound Train getting the recognition they deserve – two of my absolute favorites by far!! I may not agree with everything on the list but I appreciate that he looked beyond your typical Springsteen staples. Others I would have added: Jungleland, The River, You’re Missing, New York City Serenade, Secret Garden, and 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).
No Jungleland?
No 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)?
No State Trooper?
But you have Ramrod, Cynthia, and Murder Inc. in there?
Odd list.
We’re missing my two favorite girls…Sandy and Rosalita.
I like how some of the less well known songs got in there. It seems like it’s all just born to run or born in he USA a lot of times…. Interesting list. Would have liked to see lost in the flood
thunderroad
saint in the city
this hard land
candys room
human touch
magic
the rising
down bound train
tom joad
youngstown
something in the night