100 Records that Shook the World, #32

Born to Run (LP)

Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen's third album Born To Run  is widely considered by all and sundry to be his magnum opus. In fact Rolling Stone, a publication that ought to know what it's talking about, ranked the album at number 18 on its 500 Best Albums of All Time list.

Springsteen's breakthrough album, it peaked at number 3 on the Billboard album chart and by the year 2000 had sold six million copies. That's a lot of vinyl.

Springsteen is quoted as saying that he wanted the album to sound like 'Roy Orbison singing Bob Dylan, produced by Phil Spector.' In fact, the album took fourteen months to record due to Springsteen's inability to adequately translate the sounds in his head to band members. The title track itself took six months to finish.

But finish they did, and it was a critical and commercial success, much to Columbia Records' relief.

Enjoy.
Oh, and think you know that drummer? He's Conan O'Brien sidekick and bandleader Max Weinberg.