Seven ages of rock - a history of rock music over the past 50 years

Springsteen releases 'Born To Run'

1 September 1975

For a band who had been called "the biggest cult band in the world," Bruce Springsteen and his East Street Band announced with the release of 'Born To Run' that they were consciously stepping into the limelight. Although Springsteen had been using Blue Collar American imagery in his songwriting for a while, it was his dense Phil Spector-style layering of instruments and his innovative use of piano and saxophone that marked out this record from any other at the time. The single "Born To Run" took a lengthy three months to record (produced by Jon Landau, Bruce's eventual manager) and was released a year before the album came out. The delay in getting the final record in to the shops didn't seem to detract from the sales; within 2 weeks it had sold 700 000 copies and was certified a gold record. The album's distinctive sound helped carve out a style that would come to dominate the rock charts in the 1980s.