Today is Bruce Springsteeen's Birthday!
Along with the E Street band, The Boss hit the scene with "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." and followed that up with "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle", in 1973. Both albums received by acclaim by critics, but did not perform well as far as sales were concerned. Bruce would change his style and blow up in popularity with Born to Run in 1975. The title track would become an all-time classic, and one of his signature songs. He would follow up with "Darkness on the Edge of Town" in 1978 and The River in 1980.
Bruce would take time away to record a solo album in 82, and Nebraska would garner the highest reviews he ever received, as his intellectual prose would rival his hero Bob Dylan's himself. The Boss would follow his critical accalaim with the biggest album of his career, as he released Born in the U.S.A. with the E Street Band in 1984! The album became the 23rd-best selling album of all time, with seven singles reaching the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and one of the highest grossing tours in the history of music. He would go on through the end of the 80's and into the 90's recording both solo albums and releases with the E Street Band.
In his career Springsteen is the first artist to have a top-five album in six consecutive decades, sold more than 140 million albums worldwide, won 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, received the Kennedy Center Honors, and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts. He is absolutely one of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and is without question what Rolling Stone Magazine says is "the embodiment of rock and roll".
Happy Birthday to The Boss!