Bruce Springsteen’s 30 best songs ranked
Few artists have had a career with as much staying power—and as much cultural and musical relevance—as the Boss
Music Features Bruce Springsteen
Back in September 2023, Bruce Springsteen announced that he would have to shelve his planned tour until March 2024 so he could recover from peptic ulcer disease. The temporary retreat shouldn’t be seen as a harbinger for the metaphoric end of the road for the rocker—all the pictures of the 74-year-old Springsteen show him looking spry and vigorous—yet the occasion of a pause in performance gave us the perfect opportunity to look back at his career.
Selecting 30 essential Bruce Springsteen songs could be seen as a fool’s errand. His body of work is one of the richest in rock history, comprised of classic albums and anthems that still are commonly heard decades after their original release. In addition to his core catalog, he also had a wealth of unreleased gems, some of which trickled out in concert or on B-sides or in reissues. Given this volume of work, it’s inevitable that some standards and hits didn’t make the cut. This list suggests Springsteen’s range and depth by balancing sublime epics, earthy rockers, and heart-rending ballads.
48 Comments
No New York City Serenade? David Sancious’ opening piano solo alone.
I have a playlist of New York related songs, and sadly, as a Bruce fan, I tend to skip this.
Unhinged take
But mine, nonetheless. Of those early story songs, give me Lost in the Flood every time.
Was there some critical reappraisal of “Independence Day” that I somehow missed? Not even top 30?
AS someone who loves that song myself, you’ve got to have some awareness of what other people like when creating lists like this… and Independence Day is not a song that many other people like.It’s really not even a little surprising it didn’t make the list.
Way too much from Born in the USA.And Pink Cadillac? Really?
I thought it was a little too heavy on his first two albums, but the top 10 is hard to argue with
It ain’t high art, but Pink Cadillac is a fun song.
And yet no Downbound Train.
I hoped we would be done with slide shows once the site got sold.
Stay gold.
We’re still in the escrow period.
Looking forward to actual articles and interviews again.Ha! j/k. We all know it’s top 20 lists, clickbait, slideshows, written by underpaid and abused staff from here on out.
Is that why I couldn’t get here from Giz? I’ve had limited internet access the past month so a little out of the loop.
There shouldn’t be a single post Nebraska song on this list.
Tunnel of Love might be my favorite of his albums
I do like Tunnel of Love I must say. Probably the last tour I attended.
Tunnel of Love was his first tour that I attended which now that I think about it might have something to do with why I love it. But I also attended the subsequent tour for his double albums & I don’t care about them & wouldn’t include any of their songs
I love Spare Parts and would have that in my top 20.
Dude, BITUSA was banger after banger. But yeah, beyond that…
Don’t look at me, I hated that record in 85, I hate it still.
I get the sentiment but “The Rising,” “Meet Me At Mary’s Place,” “Death to My Hometown,” “Ghost of Tom Joad,” “Youngstown,” “Land of Hope and Glory,” and several more are as good as anything pre-Nebraska. Mrs. Grocery and I saw him Thursday night and “The Rising” was as anthemic as “Thunder Road.”
I completely lost interest in Bruce with Human Touch and Lucky Town and nothing I’ve heard has caused me to question that decision in any way. Plus no Clarence, and I hate Tom Morello, so no way was I seeing those tours. Now he’s 100 and I still got no more interest.
Yeah, Human Touch and Lucky Town didn’t do anything for me either. Speaking of Clarence, it’s interesting how he’s worked Jake Clemons into the show to be sort of Clarence lite. The dude plays well, but they have him doing all the Clarence/Boss poses and it’s a bit weird.
I drifted away a bit at that point too, but Wrecking Ball brought me back to the fold.
I see him in 2 weeks
Tom Joad is an amazing album. i was really expecting more from it on this list. Sinaloa Cowboys in particular.
“Spare Parts” would like a word.
How is Land of Hope and Dreams not in the list?
A post or so up I said I’d seen Bruce and the band last Thursday, saying “The Rising” came off as anthemic as “Thunder Road.” I could have said the same thing about “Land of Hope and Dreams.” The whole crowd was right there with him through the whole thing.
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No Meeting Across the River? That perfect little 3-minute Scorsese movie? List invalid.And some genius once said Thunder Road is the prequel to Fast Car
Just saw him in SF this week. Hot dog they still got it.
The Promised Land has such power, it’s number 1 for me. The guitar into sax into harmonica solo section is pure magic.
Not number one for me, but definitely higher than 8.
The River should always be 1. Secret Garden should be in here, even though Bruce never want to play it. Also Glory Days?!
Also: Adam Raised a Cain and Candy’s Room
I saw him in 2013 when he had played BTR and BITUSA in their entirety at earlier gigs in the tour. I suggested to the person I was with that it would be great if he did the same with Darkness. And he did. Many of my favourite songs are on that album, even if I don’t always enjoy listening to the album as much as I could. I think a lot of those songs take on a new life, live, and it was the 1975-85 box set that sparked my love of Adam Raised a Cain, Candy’s Room, Badlands etc. At least Badlands makes top 5, as it rightly should.
Hard to not put Born to Run at 1, but I’d have The River at 2. There aren’t too many songs I’ve heard a thousand times that still tug at my heart like that.
To this very day, I cannot believe that Bruce Springsteen released Born to Run when he was 26. Genius.
Minor quibbles but I can’t argue with any of this. Can you imagine being a songwriter and Jungleland was your 13th best song.
My dad loves Bruce, so i’ve heard his music growing up, and “Secret Garden”, from his Greatest Hits(1995) compilation, is my all-time fave (and yes, it was an inspiration for Taylor Swift’s “You Are In Love”, since Jack Antonoff is a big Bruce fan).
I’d also have Seeds near the top – I could never understand how that didn’t make it onto a studio album.
I think every song off Born in the USA on this list is one I would not pick. Part of it’s probably that I’m a bit sick of the hits after all these years, but I wouldn’t have ever put “I’m on Fire” or “My Hometown” as my favorites off that album (which I bought it was pretty new). “No Surrender” and “Bobby Jean” still hold up well for me. Basically any song off of Born To Run is going to be better than the best song of most artist’s careers, so I’m fine with any of those, but I would have put “She’s The One” on this list.A few other random ones I would have chosen or at least seriously considered: “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City”, “Spirit in the Night”, “The Ties That Bind”, “Tougher Than the Rest”, “Girls in their Summer Clothes.”
The live version of “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” from 1975-1985 is absolutely stunning. If anyone ever wanted to know what the big deal about Bruce live is, that’s probably what I’d pull out.(Not that he was always at that level; I saw him live for the Lucky Town/Human Touch tour and it was honestly one of the worst shows I ever saw. My friend and I left during the first (?) encore (or however many there were.)
Where’s “She’s the One”? Come on!Also, no love for Letter to You? “Ghosts” and “Burnin’ Train” are both pretty great.
trigger warning: opinionHis music deserves the same amount of respect that Billy Joel’s gets. It has not held up well. His legacy should be as the first of the “return to rock and roll” musicians, and like all of them, his music doesn’t hold up to the originals.
For me, Springsteen’s albums from Born to Run to Born in the USA are stone cold classics with almost no missteps…ALMOST (looking at you, “Glory Road”). I tend to heavily favor Nebraska and Darkness on the Edge of Town, though, so I was surprised that Nebraska’s title track, Darkness’s title track, and “Candy’s Room” were not included on this list. All three are phenomenal (“Candy’s Room” is, to me, basically a scuzzy punk song, just written by somebody with a lot more heart than most punks were capable of in 1978), but I think this list mostly gets it right.