Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A.: extended

Born in the U.S.A. (extended) Bruce Springsteen

Released: NA Recorded: May 1982 to August 1984 Peak: NA Sales (in millions): NA Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click on a song titled for more details. Murder Incorporated [3:57] None But the Brave [5:35] Cynthia [4:13] TV Movie [2:48] Car Wash [2:06] Rockaway the Days [4:40] Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart [3:24] Pink Cadillac [3:33] T1 Shut Out the Light [3:51] Man at the Top [3:19] Stand on It [3:05] Johnny Bye-Bye [1:49] Brothers Under the Bridge ‘83 [5:06] Trapped (live) [5:10] Spotify Playlist Check out my Spotify playlist for the Born in the U.S.A. outtakes released on various compilations.

About the Album: This is an unusual DMDB page. It’s for an album that doesn’t exist. Bruce Springsteen officially released Nebraska in 1982 and Born in the U.S.A. in 1984. In between the two, he recorded ample material. While he released deluxe versions of Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River that included full-fledged albums of previously unreleased material, he hasn’t afforded the same treatment to Born in the U.S.A., his best-selling album. That may be due to how much of that material has already seen the light of day via other releases. On top of that, in 2025 he released LA Garage Sessions ‘83 as part of the Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set. Still, a fascinating “extended version” of Born in the U.S.A. can be cobbled together with material that has been officially released on the following collections: Greatest Hits (1995) Tracks (box set, 1998) The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003) Tracks II: The Lost Albums (box set, 2025) The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Murder Incorporated Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: May 3-4, 1982 at the Power Station in New York. Mixed in January 1995 at the Hit Factory and Right Track in New York Released: 2/24/1995 as a single, Greatest Hits (1995) B-Side: “Because the Night” (live) Peak: 14 AR, 5 CN, 9 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.9 video, 7.5 streaming About the Song: “When Bobby, the protagonist of Murder Incorporated, disappears, it’s not clear if he got whacked by the mob’s hit man or did himself in to save everyone the trouble.” 33-68 It borrows “its title from the 1960 film directed by Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg.” 33-71

None But the Brave Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: June 6, 13, and 27, 1983 at the Hit Factory Released: The Essential (2003)

Cynthia Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 6/15/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: Tracks (box set, 1998)

TV Movie Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 6/13/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: Tracks (box set, 1998) About the Song: This “is one of Springsteen’s finest comic creations, the story of someone who will be immortalized ‘not in some major motion picture or great American novel,’ but in a cheesy, totally compromised TV movie. The flick will probably get all the facts wrong but it should raise his profile enough to get the narrator a sponsorship deal with Goodyear Tires.” 33-96

Car Wash Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 5/31/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: Tracks (box set, 1998)

Rockaway the Days Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 1/12/1984 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: Tracks (box set, 1998) About the Song: The song tells the story of Billy, a parolee who “goes home to his mother’s mobile home in Maryland and tries to go straight. He gets a job, meets a girl and gets married. But one night he settles a barroom fight with a razor blade.” 33-68

Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 6/16/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: 8/27/85 as B-side of “I’m Goin’ Down,” Tracks (box set, 1998), alternate version: Somewhere North of Nashville (2025) Covered by: Warren Zevon (1980 as “Jeannie, Don’t You Lose Heart”)

Pink Cadillac Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Recorded: 5/31/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: 5/3/1984 as the B-side of “Dancing in the Dark,” Tracks (box set, 1998), 18 Tracks (1999) First Charted: 6/2/1984 Peak: 27 AR, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.7 video, 19.97 streaming Covered by: Natalie Cole (charted 3/5/1988, #5 BB, 5 CB, 7 RR, 16 AC, 5 UK, 19 DF), duet with Jerry Lee Lewis (2006) About the Song: The Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. 1984-1985 era may be the most dominant in the history of the album rock chart. Not only did nine of the album’s twelve cuts chart (seven of which reached the top 10), but three other songs from that era charted as well, including “Pink Cadillac.” The song was originally slated to appear on Born in the U.S.A., but got bumped in favor of “I’m Goin’ Down.” 33-104 Then it appeared as the B-side of “Dancing in the Dark,” the first single from Born in the U.S.A. “Pink Cadillac” only reached #27 on the charts, but that was significant for a song that wasn’t even an album cut. It wouldn’t show up on a Springsteen album until 1998 when it appeared on Tracks, a box set of outtakes. Springsteen wrote the song in December 1981 under the title “Love Is a Dangerous Thing.” He first recorded an acoustic version of “Pink Cadillac,’ with more lighthearted lyrics, in January 1982 during sessions for the Nebraska album. He recorded it again in the spring of 1983 during sessions for Born in the U.S.A. He cut the basic track at the end of a session and completed it with the E Street Band the next morning. WK The idea of singing about a pink Cadillac came from Elvis Presley’s 1954 cover of “Baby Let’s Play House” in which the King sang “You may have a pink Cadillac” (a reference to his custom painted Cadillac that was his touring vehicle) instead of the original line “You may get religion.” WK Springsteen turns “incidents from the Old Testament into comic sketches” 33-71 while also playing on the automobile as a metaphor for sexual activity much like songs such as Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” and Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally.” The lyric “I love you for your pink Cadillac was supposedly a reference to a vagina. WK

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Man at the Top Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 1/12/1984 Released: a href="https://davesmusicdatabase.blogspot.com/2016/09/chapter-and-verse-celebrates-50-years.html#tracks">Tracks (box set, 1998) About the Song: It a song about Springsteen’s “ambivalence over fame…a song about the ambition that maddens the men around the narrator. The fireman wants to be captain; the lawyer wants to be judge; the mechanic wants to own the service station; and the Indian brave wants to be the Indian chief. It was a variation on the couplet from ‘Badlands’ – ‘Poor man wanna be rich / Rich man wanna be king / And a king ain’t satisfied until he rules everything’ – played for comedy instead of tragedy this time.” 33-100

Stand on It Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 6/16/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: 5/25/1985 as the B-side of “Glory Days,” Tracks (box set, 1998), alternate version:Somewhere North of Nashville (2025) released 5/25/85 as B-side of “Glory Days,” 32 AR Charted: 7/6/1985 Peak: 32 AR, 3 DF Covered by: Mel McDaniel (1986)

Brothers Under the Bridge ‘83 Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 9/4/1983 at the Hit Factory in New York Released: Tracks (box set, 1998) About the Song: The song is “the tale of fourteen-year-old boys who idolized the older teenagers who raced thei hot-rods and cuddled up with their girls and beers beneath the train trestles.” 33-15 “The song’s galloping, anthemic music was eventually put to new lyrics and became “No Surrender.” In 1995, “Springsteen recycled the title, slowed the music way down, altered the melody, and turned it into a narrative with explicity references to Vietnam. It’s sung from the perspective of a veteran who came home in 1972 and would up homeless, sleeping in a mesquite canyon beneath a California highway overpass with a small camp of fellow vets in the same predicament.” 33-16 That version was also released on the Tracks box set.

Trapped (live) Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Jimmy Cliff Recorded: live 8/6/1984 at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey Released: 4/1/1985 on We Are the World various artists compilation, The Essential (2003) Charted: 4/13/1985 as an album cut Peak: 13 AR, 1 DF About the Song: Jimmy Cliff wrote this “parable of class division” 33-113 and released it in 1972. Bruce covered the song in live shows, contributing a version recorded in 1984 to the We Are the World album, which raised money for African famine relief.

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Reviews/Resources: 33 Geoffrey Himes (2005). 33 1/3: Born in the U.S.A.. Bloomsbury Academic: New York, NY. MG Philippe Margotin & Jean-Michel Guesdon (2020). Bruce Springsteen – All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. Cassel (an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.): Great Britain. MM Movie Match-Up (5/4/2019). “The 250 Greatest Bruce Springsteen Songs” SF Songfacts page for “Pink Cadillac” Wikipedia page for Tracks box set WK Wikipedia page for “Pink Cadillac” Related DMDB Links: First posted 7/20/2025; last updated 8/3/2025.

Keats: An Alan Parsons Project Offshoot

Keats Keats

Released: August 1984 ? Recorded: December 1983 to March 1984 Charted: -- Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock lite

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Heaven Knows (Bardens) [3:56] Tragedy (Blunstone, Elliott) [5:01] Fight to Win (Bardens) [4:10] Walking on Ice (Paton) [3:31] How Can You Walk Away (Paton) [3:41] Turn Your Heart Around (Bardens) [3:44] (1984, --) Avalanche (Bardens) [4:06] Give It Up (Bairnson) [4:45] Ask No Questions (Bairnson) [3:25] Night Full of Questions (Blunstone, Elliott) [3:57] Hollywood Heart (Bairnson) [3:43] Total Running Time: 44:00 The Players: Colin Blunstone (vocals) Ian Bairnson (guitar) Pete Bardens (keyboards) David Paton (bass, backing vocals) Stuart Elliott (drums, percussion) Stuart Cottle (saxophone, synthesizers, additional keyboard parts)

Rating: 3.107 out of 5.00 (average of 8 ratings)

About the Album: “If Toto was considered a super-star band consisting of the finest session musicians available in the US studio scene, this description applied for Keats in England as well. Consequently, the self-titled album is a milestone of contemporary rock.” RYM Members Colin Blunstone, Ian Bairnson, David Paton, and Stuart Elliott all worked together in the Alan Parsons Project, but had respectable resumes even before that. Blunstone had worked with the Zombies and as a solo artist. Bairnson and Paton had both worked with the group Pilot, best known for the song “Magic.” Elliott had been with Cockney Rebel. Pete Bardens, who’d worked with Them and Camel, rounded out the group. Although neither Alan Parsons nor Eric Woolfson had a hand in any of the writing as they did with all the Alan Parsons Project albums, they were still both involved. Parsons lent his hand as producer and, according to RateYourMusic.com, it was Woolfson who conceived the Keats project. It was his intent “to create a career for the core of the band and give them the opportunity to control their own musical output.” RYM He reportedly named the group after his favorite restaurant. GR Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out that way. Keats didn’t go anywhere despite how closely the sound matched that of Alan Parsons Project albums. Of course, from a timing standpoint, the Alan Parsons Project’s fortunes were waning. While previous album Ammonia Avenue had gone gold and produced a top-20 hit (“Don’t Answer Me”), it would mark the last time the group would achieve gold status or a top-40 hit. Still, this is “top-notch AOR throughout” GR even if “listeners often considered the Keats music as being too technical – lacking emotion.” RYM “The songs are slicker than the more musically and lyrically adventurous Alan Parsons Project albums. That’s saying something considering the highly polished sonic glaze Parsons gave his own work.” AMG All Music Guide called the opening song Heaven Knows one of the album’s highlights. AMG That song and Avalance are reminiscent of Toto with the former marked by saxophone playing from Richard Cottle. “Elsewhere there are even hints of late-1980s Magnum (Fight to Win),” GR another song noted by All Music Guide as a highlight. AMG It’s Blunstone who handles most of the vocals here. His most notable vocal with the Alan Parsons Project was on the song “Old and Wise” from their 1982 album Eye in the Sky. However, Paton takes the lead on Walking on Ice, a song he composed, and Ask No Questions, a song written by Bairnson. GR The latter “has a definite Doobies-feel in the chorus.” GR The album’s sole single, Turn Your Heart Around, is “amongst the standouts.” GR It was written by Bardens and also turned up on Blunstone’s solo album On the Air Tonight.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Keats AMG All Music Guide review by Bret Adams GR Get Ready to Rock! (5/1/2020). “Feature: Albums That Time Forgot – Keats by David Randall RYM Rate Your Music WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/24/2021.

 

The Smiths “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” released

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want The Smiths

Writer(s): Johnny Marr, Morrissey (see lyrics here) Released: August 24, 1984 Peak: 9 CO, 2 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 13.0 video, 202.81 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: I discovered the Smiths in 1986 because of this song. It is a mournful plea “written from the perspective of someone in desperate need of some good luck.” SF It appeared on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack along with some of the other staples of college rock such as New Order, INXS, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Psychedelic Furs, and Orchestra Manoeuvres in the Dark. Like those other groups, though, the Smiths were already well established in the UK. I just hadn’t caught up yet. The Smiths formed in Manchester, England in 1982. Lead singer Morrissey gave the group clever lyrics that were simultaneously maudlin and toe-tapping and Johnny Marr backed it with his jangly guitar. When Pretty in Pink came out, the Smiths had two albums under their belt and would release their classic The Queen Is Dead by year’s end. In the tradition of great British ‘60s groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Smiths were adamant about treating albums and singles as different products. That meant the songs that climbed the charts in the UK (and were ignored stateside) were rarely featured on their albums. Their first two singles – 1983’s “Hand in Glove” and “This Charming Man” have become new wave staples. In the case of “Please Please Please,” however, it wasn’t even a single. Instead, it was the B-side of “William, It Was Really Nothing,” which reached #17 in the UK in 1984. Morrissey later said, “Hiding it away on a B-side was sinful.” SF He explained that the record company, Rough Trade, asked “Where’s the rest of the song?” Morrissey, however, defended the length (just shy of two minutes) as “a very brief punch in the face [and] lengthening the song would, to my mind, have simply been explaining the blindingly obvious.” SF After the Pretty in Pink soundtrack introduced me to the Smiths, I was ready to embrace them. In early 1987, they released Louder Than Bombs, a career-retrospective of their non-album singles and B-sides. It was a U.S. release that consolidated much of the material featured on the UK collections Hatful of Hollow and The World Won’t Listen into one double album. It became a pivotal album for me, introducing me to treasures such as “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “Half a Person” which had managed to fly under my radar upon their initial release. However, it was “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” which would always remain my favorite. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Smiths SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/10/2022.

The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?” released for the first time

How Soon Is Now? The Smiths

Writer(s): Johnny Marr, Morrissey (see lyrics here) Released: August 20, 1984 First Charted: February 9, 1985 Peak: 16 UK, 11 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 21.0 video, 185.57 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Smiths were an alternative-rock band that formed in Manchester, England in 1982. They only lasted five years, but had a significant impact on the British independent music scene and the American college-rock movement. “How Soon Is Now?” is “a hallmark of the brief yet significant songwriting partnership of [singer] Morrissey and [guitarist Johnny] Marr.” TB It became one of the group’s most celebrated songs “without being particularly representative of the band.” XFM This is “very much a Johnny Marr song, its teaming, bubbling guitars and shimmering riff seethe with a masculinity and stridence that were rarely Smiths trademarks.” XFM The record company originally released it as the B-side of “William, It Was Really Nothing” in August 1984. However, the song got picked up by night-time British radio and became the most-requested track on request shows by DJs John Peel and others. WK It was then featured on the compilation Hatful of Hollow compilation in November. That month it was also released as a single in the United States and was accompanied by a video which the band had no involvement in making. Morrissey said he detested the video. The song failed to chart in the U.S. In January 1985, it was released as a single in the UK and a month later resurfaced again on the Meat Is Murder album. On its second go-round, the single reached #24 on the UK charts. The song had become a club favorite and it was expected to do better on the charts. However, it had probably been hurt by being released in multiple forms before finally being released as a single in its own right. WK As the band’s producer, John Porter, said, “the Smiths’ fans already had it.” WK In 1992, it was re-released and got to #16. The song has connections to early ‘50s rock and roll. Marr recorded “How Soon Is Now?” with bandmates Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce during a jam session. Porter thought the basic riff needed something more, which led to an impromptu jam session of Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right.” Marr worked in his chord progression for “How Soon Is Now?” (then known as “Swamp”), inspiring the song’s arrangement. WK Marr was also “inspired by Bo Diddley’s distinctive syncopated shuffle guitar style” WK and, in fact, the rhythm of “How Soon Is Now?” has been compared to Diddley’s “Mona.” WK Morrissey’s “ever-ambiguous lyrics continued to fuel speculation about the singer’s sexuality.” TB Written about his crippling shyness, “How Soon Is Now?” became “an anthem for the alienated and socially isolated.” SF The title came from a question posed in one of Morrissey’s favorite books, Popcorn Venus, a feminist film study by Marjorie Rosen. SF Resources: SF Songfacts DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 77. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 218. WK Wikipedia XFM Mike Walsh (editor) (2010). The XFM Top 1000 Songs of All Time. Elliott & Thompson Limited: London, England. Page 384. Related Links: First posted 10/14/2021; last updated 4/1/2023.