The Boss

During the 1980s there was no bigger patriotic rocker than Bruce Springsteen and the new jersey rocker was not afraid to send out his American sentiments.

He came to prominence in the seventies with his E Street band but the 1980s saw him as a global superstar with concert tickets the hottest ticket in town.

It was the release of his double album in 1980 'The river' that catapulted him into the conscious of the public. The album produced his first big hit 'Hungry hearts' and the music saw a style similar to the 1950/1960 old fashioned rock sound. A tour followed and then he released the acoustic album 'nebraska' Although the album commercially did not do well it did receive critical acclaim with Rolling Stone mag making it album of the year, also the album inspired U2 who did a similar Lo-Fi Recording for The Joshua tree.


1984 then saw a huge turnaround in fortunes when he released 'Born in the USA' album which sold over 30 million copies worldwide and 15 million alone in America. His music a mixture of American anthems with sympathies for the troops who fought in Vietnam.

The album saw a huge number of top 10 singles including Dancing in the dark which featured Courtney Cox on the video promo. Also Glory days and the classic rock pumping song Born in the USA. He also found time to star in the 1985 single 'We are the world' in there efforts to raise money for Africa.

Also during this crazy period he released a live album of his works between 1975 and 1985 and again this was a huge selling album due to his excellent live shows. It was a hard one to follow but Bruce then released the more laid back album 'tunnel of love'. The album featured the song 'Brilliant Disguise' which was a reflection of his personal relationships which saw the break up of his first marriage.

In 1988 he played a series of live shows in Berlin east Germany and many believe that this led to breakdown of the Berlin wall and the unification of Germany. Also he was now doing work for Amnesty International with a series of concerts.

An integral part of Bruce popularity particularly on the live sets was his backing band The E Street Band who supported him for many years. Also the backing vocal talents of Patti Scialfi whom he would later marry. The band remained unchanged until the recent deaths of Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons.

During the 1980s the boss released 4 studio albums of which Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love both reached number one in the UK album charts. He also released a live album which also went top 10 in the UK. In terms of singles he released 26 but only 5 hit the top 10 in the UK with dancing in the dark peaking the highest at number 4.