Born in the U.S.A.

Following the conclusion of the River Tour in September 1981, Bruce Springsteen rented a ranch in Colts Neck, New Jersey, While there, he wrote new material, including the song "Vietnam" about a Vietnam veteran returning to an apathetic community. During the tour, Springsteen had read Born on the Fourth of July, a 1976 autobiography by Ron Kovic, an anti-war activist who was wounded and paralyzed during the Vietnam War. Kovic's story inspired Springsteen to meet with veterans of the war in Los Angeles, which in turn inspired several tracks that center on themes about the Vietnam War, including "Vietnam", "Shut Out the Light", "A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)", "Highway Patrolman", and "Brothers Under the Bridges". As Springsteen developed "Vietnam", the director Paul Schrader asked him to write music for a planned (but ultimately abandoned) film Born in the U.S.A. The screenplay centered on a Cleveland factory worker who plays guitar in a bar band at night. Springsteen revised the lyrics and music of "Vietnam", using the film's title to create "Born in the U.S.A." Schrader eventually made the film but retitled it Light of Day, which was released in 1987; Springsteen provided its title song. Using a four-track tape recorder, Springsteen demoed tracks written in the bedroom of his Colts Neck house between December 17, 1981, and January 3, 1982. These included "Born in the U.S.A.", "Nebraska", "Atlantic City", "Mansion on the Hill", "Downbound Train", and "Child Bride". Between February and March, Springsteen demoed further tracks, including "Wages of Sin", "Your Love is All Around Me", "Baby I'm So Cold", and "Fade to Black". == Recording history ==

Initial sessions and Nebraska In late January 1982, weeks after recording the demos in Colts Neck, Springsteen and the E Street Band – Roy Bittan (piano), Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (organ), Garry Tallent (bass), Steven Van Zandt (guitar), and Max Weinberg (drums) – were at the Hit Factory in New York City recording a session for Gary U.S. Bonds' album On the Line, for which Springsteen had written seven songs and was co-producing with Van Zandt. During the session, the band recorded "Cover Me", a song Springsteen had written for Donna Summer. His manager-producer Jon Landau convinced Springsteen to keep it for his next album after hearing the finished recording; Springsteen subsequently wrote Summer another song, "Protection", and likewise recorded a version of that song with the E Street Band. In April, Springsteen and the E Street Band regrouped at the Power Station in New York City, where The River (1980) had been recorded. There, he attempted to rerecord some of the Colts Neck demos as full-band versions for release on the next album. Production was handled by Springsteen, Landau, Van Zandt, and The River mixer Chuck Plotkin, while Toby Scott returned from the Hit Factory sessions as engineer. The band spent two weeks attempting full-band arrangements of the Colts Neck tracks, including "Nebraska", "Johnny 99", and "Mansion on the Hill", but Springsteen and his co-producers were dissatisfied with the recordings. Plotkin has described the performances with E Street as "less meaningful... less compelling... less honest" than the demo recordings. Other songs from the tape, including "Born in the U.S.A.", "Downbound Train", "Child Bride" (now rewritten as "Working on the Highway"), and "Pink Cadillac", proved successful in full-band arrangements. According to the author Dave Marsh, the night the band recorded "Born in the U.S.A." was when "they knew they'd really begun making an album". Over the next few weeks into May, the band's productivity increased as they recorded material absent from the Colts Neck tape, including "Darlington County", "Frankie", "Glory Days", "I'm Goin' Down", "I'm on Fire", "Johnny Bye-Bye", "Murder Incorporated", "My Love Will Not Let You Down", "A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)", "This Hard Land", "None but the Brave", and "Wages of Sin". A new recording of "Cover Me" was also made. According to Weinberg, these sessions featured little rehearsal as the band went through songs without knowing them fully, often in fewer than five takes. Despite the band's productivity and excitement about the recorded material, Springsteen remained focused on the rest of the Colts Neck songs. Realizing the tracks would not work in full-band arrangements, he decided to release the demos as is. Springsteen briefly considered releasing a double album of acoustic and electric songs before deciding to release the acoustic ones on their own to give them "greater stature". The album, Nebraska, was released in September 1982. It featured nine songs from the original demo tape, and "My Father's House", recorded at Colts Neck in late May. The album sold well, reaching number three in the U.S. and the U.K. charts. According to the pop culture scholar Gillian G. Gaar, music critics praised the album as "a brave artistic statement". Springsteen did not promote the album; he conducted no interviews and, for the first time after an album release, did not tour, instead vacationing on a cross-country road trip to California. Springsteen struggled with the final track-list, but was convinced by Landau and Plotkin to stick with a selection of material largely from the May 1982 sessions. He wrote in his 2016 autobiography Born to Run that he had "recorded a lot of music... But in the end, I circled back to my original groups of songs. There I found a naturalism and aliveness that couldn't be argued with." He had selected eleven songs by that April. When Van Zandt heard the final track listing, he urged Springsteen to include "No Surrender", as he felt it acted as a bridge between Springsteen's earlier and current works. Springsteen complied, bringing the final track count to twelve. "Murder Incorporated" was released on Greatest Hits (1995), while "County Fair" and "None but the Brave" appeared on the limited edition bonus disc of The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003). The songs recorded in early 1983 in Springsteen's Los Angeles home that had previously appeared on bootlegs were officially released in June 2025 as part of the box set Tracks II: The Lost Albums. Titled ''LA Garage Sessions '83'', the album features eighteen songs including "Sugarland", "Richfield Whistle", "Don't Back Down", "Follow That Dream", "Fugitive's Dream", "Seven Tears", "One Love", and "The Klansman". == Music and themes ==

Born in the U.S.A. is a rock and roll, heartland rock, and pop album, with elements of folk and rockabilly. The album's sound and production are characteristic of mid-1980s mainstream rock, featuring prominent synthesizers, "slamming" guitars, "massive" drums, and "front-and-center" vocals. A number of contemporary reviewers noted that although Springsteen added electronic textures he retained his rock and roll roots. Critics have described a progression of the characters and their struggles on Born in the U.S.A. from those on his previous albums. AllMusic's William Ruhlmann argues that following their journeys through Springsteen's first six albums, from being passionate youths to centering their attention on work life to feeling discouragement on Nebraska, the characters on his seventh album were alive with a resolve to succeed. Ruhlmann and others have heard humor on Born in the U.S.A. or in its characters; The track dissects the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans upon their return home after the war. as many Americans, including president Ronald Reagan, interpreted it as a patriotic anthem; Margotin and Guesdon discuss the juxtaposition of the verses, which convey "the somber reality of a soldier", with the chorus which "loudly and proudly proclaims the glory of American civilization". AllMusic's Mike DeGayne argued that while the song would have been effective as an acoustic ballad, similar to "My Hometown" or Nebraska "Atlantic City", "it's the fervor and the might of Springsteen in front of a bombastic array of guitar and drums that help to drive his message home". "Cover Me" is a straightforward rock song, with elements of rockabilly. Its upbeat music contrasts with the lyrics, which tell a melancholic story about a couple on the verge of a break-up. It was partially based on a true story of Springsteen meeting an old friend at a bar who had had the potential to become a professional baseball player in the early 1970s. Some commentators have argued the song opposes nostalgia rather than embracing it, as the protagonist pities the former high school heroes. Based on Springsteen's personal experiences growing up in the 1960s, the song returns to the social issues raised in the album's first side, with themes centered on working-class life, racial tensions, violence and economic strife. Pitchfork Sam Sodomsky has argued the song "captures what Born in the U.S.A. failed to: the tragedy of the American dream, the brutality and injustice that is fundamental to American citizenship, and the complicated, intractable love for one's home that still manages to take root in the midst of it all." == Artwork ==

(pictured in 2008). The cover photograph shows Springsteen with his back to the camera against the stripes of an American flag. He wears a white T-shirt and jeans, with a red baseball cap tucked into his right back pocket. The cap belonged to the recently deceased father of his friend Lance Larson. Springsteen has said that the flag was included because the first track was called "Born in the U.S.A." and the song's overarching theme reflected his writing of the past six or seven years. The cover became controversial; some commentators believed Springsteen was urinating on the flag, The cover was designed by Andrea Klein, == Release and promotion ==

Columbia Records released Born in the U.S.A. on June 4, 1984. The album was the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release. Born in the U.S.A. debuted at number nine on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 Albums chart during the week of June 23, 1984, topping the chart two weeks later, on July 7. It stayed in the top 10 for 84 consecutive weeks and on the chart itself for almost three years. It was also a commercial success in Europe and Oceania. In the United Kingdom, the album entered the UK Albums Chart at number two on June 16, and after 34 weeks, on February 16, 1985, it reached number one and topped the chart for five non-consecutive weeks; it was present on the chart for 135 weeks. After the advent of the North American Nielsen SoundScan tracking system in 1991, the album sold an additional 1,463,000 copies, and in May 2022, it was certified seventeen times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 17 million copies in the U.S. It peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 20 weeks. with "Stand on It" as the B-side. It spent 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number five. backed by "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart". It reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, Music videos (pictured in 2008) directed three of the album's five music videos. Five of the album's seven singles were supported by music videos. "Dancing in the Dark" contains footage of a live performance at the St. Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 28 and 29, 1984. The video was directed by Brian De Palma, and contains a scene where Springsteen pulls a young fan, played by the then-unknown actress Courteney Cox, on stage to dance; Springsteen recreated the bit frequently with young female fans throughout the tour. De Palma's video introduced Springsteen to the MTV generation, helping Springsteen to reach a much wider audience. The filmmaker John Sayles directed the videos for "Born in the U.S.A.", "I'm on Fire", and "Glory Days". For the title track, Sayles interspersed concert footage of Springsteen singing the song, shot in Los Angeles in 1984, with footage of small-town America. For the "I'm on Fire" video, Springsteen plays an auto mechanic captivated by a young woman in a white dress. The video won the award for Best Male Video at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. The video for "Glory Days" starred Springsteen as the song's titular baseball player, working on a construction site and practicing baseball pitches alone, reflecting on his "glory days". It transitions to a performance of the song at a club with the E Street Band, featuring both Steven Van Zandt and his replacement guitarist Nils Lofgren, alongside new backing vocalist Patti Scialfa. The video ends with Springsteen's character playing a game of catch with his son until his wife, played by Springsteen's first wife Julianne Phillips, picks them up. Besides the 2013 London concert, Springsteen performed the entire Born in the U.S.A. album in 2009 at shows in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, several other concerts in 2013 including in Munich, Milan, and Rio De Janeiro, and in 2014 in Melbourne and Auckland. == Critical reception ==

Born in the U.S.A. was very favorably reviewed on release. It was described as both accessible and containing new musical elements that critics such as Robert Hilburn and Sandy Robertson believed would both please longtime fans and attract a new audience. Writing for Shreveport, Louisiana's The Times, Marshall Fine wrote: "It's a superb effort, an album of rich musical and lyrical textures that can only enhance Springsteen's reputation as a rock 'n' roll original." In Rolling Stone, Debby Miller said Born in the U.S.A. was as well thought-out as Nebraska, but with more sophistication and spirit. Saturday Review John Swenson commended Springsteen for "championing traditional rock values at a time when few newer bands show interest in such a direction", and the performances of the E Street Band. Richard Harrington of The Washington Post wrote that the "problem is that Springsteen's taken us down these mean side streets and through these badlands all too often since 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town." Christgau, the poll's creator, also ranked it number one on his list and in 1990 named it the ninth-best album of the 1980s. NME, in their end-of-the-year list, placed it at number two, behind Bobby Womack's The Poet II. In Rolling Stone, Springsteen and the E Street Band won artist and band of the year, album of the year for Born in the U.S.A., and single and music video of the year for "Dancing in the Dark". At the 27th Annual Grammy Awards in 1985, Born in the U.S.A. was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while "Dancing in the Dark" was nominated for Record of the Year and won the award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. "Born in the U.S.A." was nominated for Record of the Year at the following year's ceremony. ==Legacy==

Born in the U.S.A. made Springsteen a superstar and was his commercial and critical highpoint, touching off a wave of what the author Chris Smith termed "Bossmania". Although he was already well-known, the critic Larry Rodgers wrote that "it was not until he hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in [the] cover photo" that he became an American pop icon". The author Bryan K. Garman suggested that this new image helped Springsteen popularize his persona, while tying him to certain political and socio-cultural issues at a time when Ronald Reagan was promoting prosperity and U.S. global influence "within a decidedly masculine framework". Stereogum Ryan Leas later called the album "one of the defining records of the '80s". Despite Born in the U.S.A. commercial success, Springsteen was wary of his newfound fame. For Tunnel of Love (1987), the follow-up to Born in the U.S.A., he recorded most of the parts himself using a synthesizer and wrote lyrics about love, romantic commitment, and married life. He used the E Street Band sparingly on the album before disbanding the group in 1989. In the 1990s, Springsteen ignored dominant music trends, such as grunge and alternative rock, as he created the music he wanted to make despite being aware of the potential commercial shortcomings. According to Hyden, "Born in the U.S.A." and the End of the Heartland which dissects the album and its impact forty years after its release, the album served as an influence for later rock bands who wanted to mimic the album's power and impact, such as the Killers with ''Sam's Town (2006), Arcade Fire with The Suburbs (2010), the War on Drugs with Lost in the Dream (2014), and Sam Fender with Hypersonic Missiles'' (2019). The album still attracts mixed assessments. While one critic opined the album aged well into the 2000s, others have felt its production dates it to the 1980s, including critics who maintain that this production was made up for by the quality of the songs, or otherwise added "historical value" to the album. More negatively, Q magazine's journalist Richard Williams has criticized Springsteen's exaggeration of his usual characters and themes in a deliberate attempt at commercial success, accusing the singer of irresponsibly using American patriotism and "clenched-fist bombast" to cover up the album's anti-war stance. Rolling Stone ranked it number 85 on their 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 86 in a 2012 revised list, and 142 in a 2020 revised list. In 2013, it was named the 428th greatest album in a similar list published by NME. It was included in the 2016 edition of the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012. The year Paste magazine described it as the fourth best album of the 1980s. In 2015, Ultimate Classic Rock included it on a list compiling the best rock albums of the 1980s. ==Reissues==

Born in the U.S.A. was first reissued by Columbia on CD in 2000, On June 14, 2024, Sony Music reissued the album again on translucent red vinyl, featuring a booklet with new sleeve notes by Springsteen's archivist Erik Flannigan and a lithograph to mark its 40th anniversary. == Track listing ==

According to the liner notes: • Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar The E Street Band • Roy Bittan – synthesizer, piano, backing vocals • Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion, backing vocals • Danny Federici – Hammond organ, glockenspiel, piano ("Born in the U.S.A.") • Garry Tallent – bass guitar, backing vocals • Steven Van Zandt – acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmony vocals • Max Weinberg – drums, backing vocals Additional musicians • Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – backing vocals ("Cover Me" and "No Surrender") • Ruth Jackson – backing vocals ("My Hometown") Technical • Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Steven Van Zandt – producers • Toby Scott – engineer • Bob Clearmountain – mixing • John Davenport, Jeff Hendrickson, Bruce Lampcov, Billy Strauss, Zöe Yanakis – assistant engineers • Bob Ludwig – mastering • Bill Scheniman – engineer ("Cover Me") • Andrea Klein – art direction, design, cover design • Annie Leibovitz – photography • David Gahr – additional photography == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Certifications and sales ==