Personnel: Bruce Springsteen (vocals, guitar); Steve Van Zandt (vocals); Suki Lahav (violin); Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone); David Sanborn (baritone saxophone); Clarence Clemons (saxophone, background vocals); Randy Brecker (trumpet, flugelhorn); Danny Federici (organ); Roy Bittan (keyboards, glockenspiel, background vocals); David Sancious (keyboards); Garry Tallent, Richard Davis (bass); Max Weinberg, Ernest "Boom" Carter (drums); Mike Appel (background vocals).

Producers: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Mike Appel.

Recorded at The Record Plant, New York, and 914 Sound Studio, Blauvelt, New York.

BORN TO RUN is the album that turned Springsteen from a phenomenon into a superstar. His first couple of releases found Bruce working out his fascination with Dylan and Van Morrison on earthy, wordy, folk-rock-R&B tunes full of soul and punch. On BORN TO RUN, Springsteen became even more ambitious, synthesizing Spectorian production with Orbison-esque drama and Duane Eddy-influenced guitar work, creating something grand enough to be called rock opera but too proletarian to ever claim that title.

BORN TO RUN was also the first album where the Boss began to crystallize his recurring theme of working class America's doomed-but-passionate rage against its circumstances. With the earnestness and emotion that bursts forth from Springsteen's street poems, the album is never less than exhilarating, and songs like "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (a tongue-in-cheek history of the E Street Band) provide humor. "She's The One" puts the Bo Diddley beat to its most effective post-'50s use, and the title track is Springsteen's quintessential underdog epic.

What the critics say...

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.96) - Ranked #18 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...Springsteen produced a timeless, inspiring record about the labors and glories of aspiring to greatness..."
Q (p.129) - Ranked #3 in Q Magazine's "10 Essential Reissues Of 2006."
Q (1/03, p.64) - Included in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever"
Uncut (p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]he struggling Springsteen's dreams of escape are turned into a grand folly without parallel in his career."
Vibe (12/99, p.157) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Mojo (Publisher) (p.144) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] little under 40 minutes of grandiloquent silver-screen melodrama....Essential for fans..."