User:Zmbro/Born in the U.S.A.

This page is about the Bruce Springsteen album. For the title song, see Born in the U.S.A. (song). For other uses, see Born in the U.S.A. (disambiguation).

Born in the U.S.A.
Studio album by Bruce Springsteen
Released	June 4, 1984 (1984-06-04)
Recorded	January 25, 1982 – March 8, 1984
Studio	Power Station and Hit Factory (New York City)
Genre	Rock and roll heartland rock pop
Length	46:57
Label	Columbia
Producer	Bruce Springsteen Jon Landau Chuck Plotkin Steven Van Zandt
Bruce Springsteen chronology
Nebraska (1982) Born in the U.S.A. (1984) Live 1975–85 (1986)
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band chronology
The River (1980) Born in the U.S.A. (1984) Live 1975–85 (1986)
Singles from Born in the U.S.A.
"Dancing in the Dark" Released: May 9, 1984 "Cover Me" Released: July 31, 1984 "Born in the U.S.A." Released: October 30, 1984 "I'm on Fire" Released: February 6, 1985 "Glory Days" Released: May 13, 1985 "I'm Goin' Down" Released: August 27, 1985 "My Hometown" Released: November 21, 1985

Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded with the E Street Band and producers Chuck Plotkin and Jon Landau over the course of several years, while Springsteen was also working on his previously released album, Nebraska (1982). It features tighter songs with a brighter, more pop-influenced sound than Springsteen's previous albums, and prominent synthesizer, while its lyrics explore themes of working-class struggles, disillusionment, patriotism, and personal relationships. The cover features a photograph of Springsteen from behind, taken by Annie Leibovitz; it has since become one of the musician’s most iconic images.

Frequently cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, Born in the U.S.A. was critically acclaimed upon release and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards. A massive commercial success, it topped the charts in nine countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, producing seven top ten singles in the former region. The album has been certified 17× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling at least 17 million units in the United States, and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it Springsteen's most commercially successful release and one of the best-selling albums of all time. It was respectively ranked number 85 and 86 in Rolling Stone's 2003 and 2012 lists of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", being re-positioned to number 142 in the 2020 iteration.

Writing and recording

Born in the U.S.A. is composed of twelve tracks, seven recorded at Power Station studios from April 26 through May 14, 1982: "Born in the U.S.A." (April 27); "Downbound Train" (April 27–28); "Working on the Highway" (April 30); "I'm on Fire" (May 11); "Glory Days" (May 5); "Darlington County" (May 13); and "I'm Goin' Down" (May 12–13).

"Cover Me" was the first song recorded, on January 25, 1982, at The Hit Factory.

• Heylin did at least two books that covered all of Springsteen's songs: Song by Song and E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. On page 480 of E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Heylin mentions the January 1982 recording of "Cover Me" (famously initially recorded to give Donna Summers) but says he re-recorded the song in May 1982, and it was this latter recording that was used for BITUSA. I don't seem to be able to get access to the relevant part of the book in Internet Archive anymore. Also I don't have access to Song by Song, which another editor has used as a source for saying the January recording was used. Some other writers seem to assume the BITUSA "Cover Me" was the one recorded in January, though I'm not sure if anyone explicitly says so. I couldn't find the relevant bits of either book in Google Books or in the sample in Amazon. Maybe I'll need to borrow the books from my local library. We should also keep our eyes out for how explicitly other authors may or may not say the January recording was the one. Depending on what they say, we could either treat Heylin as authoritative or acknowledge the different accounts.
• (Marsh, pp. 104, 118) Early versions of "Downbound Train", "Born in the U.S.A", and "Working on the Highway" (originally called "Child Bride"—find a source for this, probably Heylin) were on the Nebraska demo cassette. "Darlington County" was first recorded during the DOTEOT sessions.

The four remaining tracks are "No Surrender" (October 25–27, 1983); "Bobby Jean" (October 10, 1983); "My Hometown", (June 29, 1983). "Dancing in the Dark" was the last to be recorded, on February 14, 1984. It was written overnight, after co-producer Jon Landau convinced Springsteen that the album needed a single. According to Dave Marsh in Glory Days, after an initial disagreement about the need for another song, Springsteen came in the next day with the entire composition written.

The Born in the U.S.A. sessions covered more than two years (January 1982 through March 1984), and produced approximately 80 songs. All but one of the January 1982 Nebraska demos were recorded with the E Street Band during April–May. The decision to create Nebraska from the demos came after these sessions. At one point, Springsteen considered combining both sources as a double-album release. "I had these two extremely different recording experiences going," he told Mark Hagen in an interview for Mojo published in January 1999. "I was going to put them out at the same time as a double record. I didn't know what to do."

questionable Having bought a home in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, he worked in a garage studio constructed by Mike Batlan, his assistant, in the final months of 1982.

Springsteen continued recording in Los Angeles after Nebraska was released, and reunited with the E Street Band at the Hit Factory in New York in May 1983. Plans were made to release an album titled Murder Incorporated, and then scrapped "because it lacked cohesion", according to Springsteen. Finally, Landau convinced Springsteen that Born in the U.S.A. was complete, after the recording of "Dancing in the Dark". The 12-track release left a large number of unused recordings "in the vaults", with Springsteen fans hoping for a "super box" anniversary collection at some point.

• wrote Summer another song, "Protection"

"No Surrender" "was a last-minute addition to the record, included at the urging of Steve Van Zandt"

Basic timeline according to Marsh (of course there are more details we can add to flesh this out)

• January 3, 1982 Nebraska demo tape (depending on different sources, it was either recorded that date, or recorded before that and mixed that date)
• Early 1982, recording Gary Bonds' On the Line which Springsteen wrote seven of the songs for
• Early 1982 (January?), recorded "Cover Me" and "Protection" (as above, Heylin says this wasn't the version of "Cover Me" used on BITUSA but other authors do not specify this)
• April 1982, began two weeks of attempts to record Nebraska material with E Street, but everyone was dissatisfied with the results.
• In May began recording other songs to make use of the studio time they had already booked, while they decided what to do about the Nebraska material. Seven or eight ("Cover Me"?) of the recordings used on BITUSA recorded then. There was much energy, and the band was excited about these songs, but the Nebraska compositions meant the most to Springsteen.
• Released Nebraska September 1982 from the original demo songs.
• (p. 151) Began recording more Nebraska-like demo songs at his home studio in Los Angeles (late 1982?)
• to be continued...

Music and lyrics

Born in the U.S.A. embraced a livelier mainstream sound than on previous Springsteen records, while continuing to explore progressive themes and values.

It "remains the most tightly honed of Springsteen's albums, the songs taut and economical, glistening with pop hooks and burnished with a dynamic Eighties sound".

According to Roger Scott, it was a "defiantly rock 'n' roll" album, while Rolling Stone's Debby Miller noted that while Springsteen incorporated "electronic textures" he "kept as its heart all of the American rock & roll from the early Sixties". While Springsteen's previous album had a stark quality, he maintained that the first half of Born in the U.S.A. was similar, being "written very much like Nebraska – the characters and the stories, the style of writing – except it's just in the rock-band setting." Springsteen had considered leaving "No Surrender" off the album, explaining that "you don't hold out and triumph all the time in life... You compromise, you suffer defeat; you slip into life's gray areas." Co-producer and guitarist Steven Van Zandt pushed for its inclusion, arguing that "the portrait of friendship and the song's expression of the inspirational power of rock music was an important part of the picture."

• Springsteen's characters are married, in their mid-'30s and dealing with parenthood and recession.

Music journalist Matty Karas regarded it as "a quintessential pop album that was also a perfect distillation of the anger and bitterness seething beneath the surface of Reagan-era America."

Billboard

Holden

• "imaginatively coming to grips with the new rhythms and textures of 80's popular music"
• "a dense, metallic sound that embraces more mechnical rhythms and textures, but without severing Mr. Springsteen's ties with with Chuck Berry, Motown, rockabilly, and other traditional rock and roll idioms"
• "Born in the U.S.A. teems with characters and incidents related to a common theme - the decline of small-town working class life in a post-industrial society. Mr. Springsteen's music, however, evokes not only the crushing humiliations and defeats of unemployment and a sense of economic hopelessness, it also suggests the courage and humor working people and laborers can muster in spite of the odds against them. Yet for all the exhilaration and energy in the album's songs about joy rides, high school memories and friendship, Born in the U.S.A. is a sad and serious album about the end of the American dream - of economic hope and security, and of community - for a dwindling segment of our society."
• "Most of the songs use only two or three chords and reiterate abrupt melodic fragments that suggest the bones of more developed folk and country songs."

Side one

"Born in the U.S.A."

• "As the accentuated drumbeat pounds, the background synthesizer begins to soar at the beginning of "Born in the USA," and the tone is set for a purely energetic and raw rock & roll song, even before Springsteen's anti-war theme kicks in. ... the simplistic song structure and straightforward arrangements presented the boss with the perfect outlet to cast his views about the Vietnam War. From a musical standpoint, the guitar is raw and strong, while Steve Van Zandt's background riffs fill in the spaces between Springsteen's hard chords. The power of the instruments are combined to create a forceful punch, as if to musically drive the song's message home. The key to "Born in the USA"'s strength lies in Max Weinberg's booming drumbeats that turn into ferocious rolls and cymbal crashes as the song progresses. While many thought that Springsteen was praising his homeland and pumping patriotism, he was actually revealing his displeasure of the U.S.'s intervention in Vietnam, as well his protest of the inhumanity of war. Further into the lyrics, he mentions the loss of a friend during the war and sings, "They're still there, he's all gone," meaning that North Vietnam is still under communist rule, the U.S.'s role was for nought, and for this his friend lost his life. While the song could have easily been sung as an acoustic ballad in the same manner as "Atlantic City" or "My Hometown," it's the fervor and the might of Springsteen in front of a bombastic array of guitar and drums that helps to drive his message home"
• "It sets the tone for the whole album. No-one spits in the face of the badlands any longer: the badlands didn't even notice. The old cast of street rats and soulful gangsters made their rebillion back in Born To Run and Darkness At The Edge Of Town and it made no damn bit of difference at all."
• "a wildly declaimed, drum-punctuated rock anthem"
• compares to Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man"; misunderstood lyrics

"Cover Me"

• "In 'Cover Me' he blends Talking Heads proto-funk with minor-key blues and some wrenching Albert King-style guitar in an affecting plea for emotional security"
• "a raucous shuffle melodrama"
• "a love song, an impassioned plea for his lover to stand by his side against the outside world"; straightforward rocker

"Darlington County"

• "two buddies out on the town, working hard, looking for some pretty girls."

"Working on the Highway"

• "Elvis-tinged romp telling the story of a guy who decides to risk it all on the wrong girl"

"Downbound Train"

• "The despairing dream song, ... the story of a man who has lost everything - is set like an ethereal funeral dirge."
• "the saddest song on the record. A forlorn tale of lost love and hard times,"

"I'm on Fire"

• "the tense, ticking confession of a man in heat"

Side two

"No Surrender"

• "an anthem of friendship and youth and never giving up"

"Bobby Jean"

• "memorializes a lost relationship"
• "a rollicking 4/4 ballad whose highlight is the plaintive sax solo from Clarence Clemons which brings the song to a close."
• "The song is believed to be written in tribute to Steve Van Zandt and his friendship with Springsteen"

• thought to be a tribute to Van Zandt, who left the band as the album was being finalized. It's described as "classic Springsteen: the lyrics may put a lump in your throat, but the music says, Walk tall or don't walk at all."

"I'm Goin' Down"

• "a deceptively sad tale of faded love despite the bouncing rhythm"

"Glory Days"

• "it is in fact a song in opposition to nostalgia. Its protagonist pities the high-school heroes — the baseball player, the beauty queen — whose adulthood has failed to measure up, and who can fill the hole only with memories. Springsteen's great advantage is that he has found a way to grow up alongside his characters."
• "a tale of lost youth and adult resignation and acceptance of where you’ve ended up: high school baseball stars, marriages that didn’t quite work out, and sitting around talking about the good ol’ times."

"Dancing in the Dark"

• "an anguished song of small-town restlessness and discontent that uses a pulsing dance rock style to evoke erotic and spiritual dreams near to eruption from the pressures of boredom and sexual frustration. Synthesized horns inject an undertone of western movie wistfulness."

"My Hometown"

• "a gentle winding-down, mingling regret and resolution, dusting off the broken dreams and promising a new start."
• ""My Hometown" is the somber, low-key concluding song on Bruce Springsteen's most popular album, 1984's Born in the U. S. A. A simple, gently played melody supports four verses that describe the narrator's life and the small town in which he lives. In the first verse, he remembers being eight years old and driving through town with his father, who says, "This is your hometown." The second verse takes the narrator to high school, and he recalls racial tensions and a specific incident of violence. In the third verse he talks about the town's current state of decline with the closing of a textile mill, and in the fourth he contemplates packing up and leaving, even as he reenacts his father's car trip through town with his own son and repeats, "This is your hometown." The song is consistent with the affection Springsteen has shown for small-town life in previous songs, and with the sense he has often expressed that he needs to leave that life behind. He makes a point of creating a fictional narrator, one who is married to a woman named Kate and who is a father (which Springsteen himself was not at this time), but the observations are true to a person Springsteen's age living in southern New Jersey, and he has said that much of the song is actually autobiographical. "My Hometown" marks yet another development in his ongoing examination of the world of his youth. Where his early characters wanted desperately to get out, this 35-year-old narrator is ambivalent about leaving. Where Springsteen previously expressed conflict with his father and then, in 1978's "Independence Day," dismissed him, here he recalls his father with some affection and even repeats his father's actions. And where he had seen marriage, family responsibilities, and the uncertainty of working-class employment as means by which dreams are destroyed in songs like "The River," here he is comfortable with a permanent romantic relationship and fatherhood and locates dissatisfaction only in an economic downturn. Unlike the often-inflated, poetic descriptions of similar material in earlier songs, the lyrics for "My Hometown" are full of specifics, the language deliberately plain. The song does not offer a solution and doesn't even come to a clear conclusion, and its subtly rhythmic, simple construction has a flow that suggests continuity. Even the music doesn't end, it just fades out. "My Hometown" was released as the seventh and final single from Born in the U. S. A. in the fall of 1985. Like its six predecessors, it reached the Top Ten; it also hit number one on the adult contemporary charts. Springsteen included a concert version of it on the box set Live 1975-1985 in 1986."

Artwork

The title track inspired the Annie Leibovitz photo of Springsteen's backside against the backdrop of an American flag, which was used as the album cover. Springsteen commented that "the flag is a powerful image, and when you set that stuff loose, you don't know what's gonna be done with it". Some people thought that the cover depicted Springsteen urinating on the flag, which he denied, insisting that "the picture of my ass looked better than the picture of my face, that's what went on the cover".

According to political writer Peter Dreier, the music's "pop-oriented" sound and the marketing of Springsteen as "a heavily muscled rocker with an album cover featuring a giant US flag, may have overshadowed the album's radical politics."

best album covers of all time (31)

Release

See also: Born in the U.S.A. Tour

Date: June 4, 1984

Born in the U.S.A. was the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release, and was manufactured by CBS and Sony at its newly-opened plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984; Columbia Records' CDs were previously manufactured in Japan. It was the best-selling album of 1985 and of Springsteen's career.

The album debuted at number nine on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart during the week of June 23, 1984, and after two weeks, it reached the top of the chart on July 7, staying at number one for seven weeks; it remained on the chart for 143 weeks. It was also a commercial success in Europe and Oceania; in the United Kingdom the album entered at number two on June 16, and after thirty four 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 one hundred thirty five weeks. It also topped the album charts in Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Born in the U.S.A. is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with worldwide sales of over 30 million copies. It was certified three times platinum by the BPI on July 25, 1985, denoting shipments of 900,000 units in the UK. After the advent of the North American Nielsen SoundScan tracking system in 1991, the album sold an additional 1,463,000 copies, and on April 19, 1995, it was certified seventeen times platinum by the RIAA for shipments of 17,000,000 copies in the US.

Singles:

• "Dancing in the Dark" – May 9, 1984 May 4

• B-side "Pink Cadillac"
• reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 and spending 21 weeks on the chart.
• "It was helped along by its video, directed by Brian DePalma, and featuring a then-unknown Courtney Cox, pulled out of the audience by her hero to dance onstage."

• "Cover Me" - July 31, 1984

• B-side "Jersey Girl"; number 7 on Hot 100; number 2 on Mainstream Rock chart
• 18 weeks

• "Born in the U.S.A." - October 30, 1984

• B-side "Shut Out the Light"
• number nine on the Billboard Hot 100; 17 weeks on the chart
• topped the charts in Ireland and New Zealand, number two in Australia, number five in the U.K.

• "I'm on Fire" - February 6, 1985

• B-side "Bye Bye Johnny"
• "The video starring Springsteen as a mechanic working on the car of a lonely rich woman of this song plays into that image, "I'm On Fire" would reach No. 6 on the Hot 100 and remain on the chart for 20 weeks."

• "Glory Days" - May 13, 1985

• B-side "Stand On It"
• "The video starred Springsteen as the aforementioned baseball player, and also featured his new wife, Julianne Phillips, in a walk-on role. “Glory Days” would peak at No. 5 on the Hot 100 and stay on the chart for 18 weeks."

• "I'm Goin' Down" - August 27, 1985

• B-side "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart"
• No. 9 on the Hot 100

• "My Hometown" - November 21, 1985

• B-side "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"; number six in the U.S.; nine in the U.K.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Initial reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
Christgau's Record Guide	A+
Los Angeles Times
Rolling Stone
Saturday Review
Smash Hits	8/10
Sounds

Born in the U.S.A. was lauded by many critics, while also generating some controversy.

Smash Hits 8/10

• critiques use of same themes as prior albums

Rolling Stone Debby Miller said it was as well thought-out as Nebraska, but with more sophistication and spirit. "While the album finds its center in [its] cheering rock songs", it's the final two songs on either side that give it an "extraordinary depth". "Springsteen has always been able to tell a story better than he can write a hook," she says, "and these lyrics are way beyond anything anybody else is writing". She sees Springsteen creating "such a vivid sense of these characters" by "[giving] them voices a playwright would be proud of".

In July 1984, writing in Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh deemed it to be the artist's most accessible listen since Born to Run, managing to incorporate "techno-pop elements without succumbing to the genre's banalities".

Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times

• more accessible music
• "retraces some of the Nebraska territory, only with a richer and fuller musical backing that, as with Prince, allows his vision to be shared with a wider audience"

Terry Atkinson, LATimes

• "The stark emotional landscapes of [Nebraska] have been put into a more easily digested framework–a richly absorbing album that, despite its lighter tone and ringing guitars, suggests that the American Dream is slipping away because of our own indifference."

Charles Shaar Murray, NME

• "No-one's going to get high on fantasy or rebellion from listening to Born In The USA. There are no moments of delirious abandon here; the music is as dry and contracted as the state of mind it describes."
• "It is very rare to see an artist take a clearcut choice between selling his audience the same old bullshit that he knows they love, and telling them the truth even if it means letting go of stuff that sells."
• "By abandoning all that 'rebel triumphant' blabber'n smoke, Bruce Springsteen displays the kind of moral and artistic integrity that rock music rarely shows any more. The power of Born In The USA is less flashy and less intoxicating, but it is far more real than the power of Springsteen's early work; this is the power of an artist telling the truth."

Sandy Robertson, Sounds 5/5

• "a bloody, unbowed, magnificent album"
• "if Broooose is no longer innovating, at least he's polishing and perfecting his craft. If you let notions of 'classics' be replaced by objectivity then this might be the best Springsteen album ever."
• "Born In The USA is a killer-diller, a record that all but the most sullen outsiders will warm to as well as the diehards. 'Dancing In The Dark' shows it most: Bruce has been listening to the radio, and now he's made a record to fit there."

Richard Williams, The Times

• similar themes as previous records: "ordinary people trapped by forces beyond their control, searching desperately for escape routes which turn out to be no more than dead ends."
• "he continues his examinations of individuals living in the margins of the Great Society, those for whom the promises of capitalism are never kept, but who find the warmth of a promise that will be broken better than no promise at all. Some will find Springsteen's obsession predictable to the point of banality; others will continue to believe that he finds enough new angles in his material to make it sound like a life's work."
• "the E Street Band, the sextet whose mastery of conventional rock forms is unequalled"
• closer in mood to Darkness

John Swenson of Saturday Review praised the disciplined writing style and Springsteen for "championing traditional rock values at a time when few newer bands show interest in such a direction".

Stephen Holden, The New York Times

• "includes rowdy party numbers as well as the bleak monologues of working-class losers that dominated Mr. Springsteen's recent work, offers Mr. Springsteen's most comprehensive vision of American life to date."
• "[Springsteen] is one of a very small number of rock performers who uses rock to express an ongoing epic vision of this country, individual social roots and the possibility of heroic self-creation."
• "He has transfused rock and roll and social realism into one another, and the compassion and the surging brawn of his music make his very despairing vision of American life into a kind of celebration."

In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau welcomed the absence of dejected themes of nostalgia and losers, along with the tougher lyrics, a sense of humor, and an upbeat worldview. It delivered "what teenagers loved about rock and roll", namely "that it just plain sounded good".

Born in the U.S.A. was voted the best album of the year in the 1984 Pazz & Jop critics poll. 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, number 2, behind Bobby Womack's The Poet II

Legacy

"'Born In the U.S.A.' changed my life and gave me my biggest audience. It forced me to question the way I presented my music and made me think harder about what I was doing." – Songs, 1998

Retrospective reviews

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
MusicHound Rock	4/5
Pitchfork	10/10
Q
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

Pitchfork called it "the bold, brilliant, and misunderstood apex of Bruce Springsteen's imperial era."

Writing retrospectively in The Telegraph, Neil McCormick declared it to be "an album of glittering paradoxes" which "manages to be both angry and celebratory, often in the same song".

Consequence of Sound

Classic Rock Review

BBC Music

New York Post

Mojo 1999

William Ruhlmann, AllMusic

• "Bruce Springsteen had become increasingly downcast as a songwriter during his recording career, and his pessimism bottomed out with Nebraska. But Born in the U.S.A., his popular triumph, which threw off seven Top Ten hits and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, trafficked in much the same struggle, albeit set to galloping rhythms and set off by chiming guitars. That the witless wonders of the Reagan regime attempted to co-opt the title track as an election-year campaign song wasn't so surprising: the verses described the disenfranchisement of a lower-class Vietnam vet, and the chorus was intended to be angry, but it came off as anthemic. Then, too, Springsteen had softened his message with nostalgia and sentimentality, and those are always crowd-pleasers. "Glory Days" may have employed Springsteen's trademark disaffection, yet it came across as a couch potato's drunken lament. But more than anything else, Born in the U.S.A. marked the first time that Springsteen's characters really seemed to relish the fight and to have something to fight for. They were not defeated ("No Surrender"), and they had friendship ("Bobby Jean") and family ("My Hometown") to defend. The restless hero of "Dancing in the Dark" even pledged himself in the face of futility, and for Springsteen, that was a step. The "romantic young boys" of his first two albums, chastened by "the working life" encountered on his third, fourth, and fifth albums and having faced the despair of his sixth, were still alive on this, his seventh, with their sense of humor and their determination intact. Born in the U.S.A. was their apotheosis, the place where they renewed their commitment and where Springsteen remembered that he was a rock & roll star, which is how a vastly increased public was happy to treat him."

According to Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), while Born in the U.S.A. may have seemed more conservative than Springsteen's previous work, it showed him evolving on what was his "most rhythmically propulsive, vocally incisive, lyrically balanced, and commercially undeniable album".

Greg Kot, writing retrospectively in the Chicago Tribune, called it "an 11-million-selling record with a conscience".

AllMusic's William Ruhlmann interpreted the album as an apotheosis for Springsteen's reoccurring characters, and "marked the first time that Springsteen's characters really seemed to relish the fight and to have something to fight for".

In a retrospective review for Q magazine Richard Williams gave it two stars out of five, criticizing Springsteen's exaggeration of his usual characters and themes in a deliberate attempt at commercial success. He accused the singer of trying to "exploit the American flag" and "to bury the anti-war message of Born In The USA beneath an impenetrable layer of clenched-fist bombast". This was, in his view, "downright irresponsible."

Rankings

In 1987, Born in the U.S.A. was voted the fifth greatest rock album of all time in Paul Gambaccini's Critic's Choice poll of 81 critics, writers, and radio broadcasters. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Born in the U.S.A. number 85 on their 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. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

lists

Impact and legacy

Although Springsteen had been a well-known star before its release, Larry Rodgers wrote in the Arizona Republic that "it was not until he hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in Annie Leibovitz's famous cover photo for Born in the U.S.A. that he became an American pop icon", touching off a wave of "Bossmania", as author Chris Smith called it. In his book A Race of Singers – Whitman's Working-Class Hero From Guthrie to Springsteen, Bryan K. Garman suggested that this new image helped Springsteen popularize his persona on a new scale, while tying him to certain political and socio-cultural issues, at a time when Ronald Reagan was promoting prosperity and US global influence "within a decidedly masculine framework." The album helped popularize American heartland rock, boosting the profiles of artists such as John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, and Bob Seger. When Mellencamp released Scarecrow (1985), critics described it as heartland rock and compared him to Springsteen.

As Born in the U.S.A. became a massive commercial success, Springsteen expressed mixed feelings about his growing fame, saying that being rich "doesn't make living easier, but it does make certain aspects of your life easier". "There were moments where it was very confusing", he added, "I never felt like I ever played a note for the money. I think if I did, people would know, and they'd throw you out of the joint".

Springsteen also expressed mixed feelings about the album itself, believing that Nebraska contains some of his strongest writing. While the title track on Born in the U.S.A. "more or less stood by itself", he declared, he called the album a "grab-bag", and "a group of songs about which I've always had some ambivalence." He acknowledged the powerful effect it had on his career, delivering his largest audience. "It forced me to question the way I presented my music and made me think harder about what I was doing," he said. The title track was widely misunderstood. According to Greg Kot and Parker Molloy, the chorus of the song felt like a patriotic anthem, but this was contradicted by the lyrics' depiction of the difficulties and marginalization returning working-class Vietnam veterans had to face. Written during the early 1980s recession in the United States, "the crestfallen verses mock the empty slogan in the chorus". It "was wilfully misinterpreted by many on the American Right" who used it during rallies, campaign events, and victory speeches.

Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, said that there were no plans for the band to celebrate the album's thirtieth anniversary with a deluxe reissue box set in the manner of previous Springsteen albums. "At least not yet," he added. A full album live performance DVD titled Born in the U.S.A. Live: London 2013 was released exclusively through Amazon on January 14, 2014, along with High Hopes.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Bruce Springsteen

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Born in the U.S.A."	4:38
2.	"Cover Me"	3:29
3.	"Darlington County"	4:48
4.	"Working on the Highway"	3:13
5.	"Downbound Train"	3:35
6.	"I'm on Fire"	2:40

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"No Surrender"	4:01
2.	"Bobby Jean"	3:48
3.	"I'm Goin' Down"	3:30
4.	"Glory Days"	4:15
5.	"Dancing in the Dark"	4:04
6.	"My Hometown"	4:34
Total length:		46:57

Personnel

• Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead guitar, acoustic guitar

The E Street Band

• Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer, background vocals
• Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals
• Danny Federici – Hammond organ, glockenspiel, piano on "Born in the U.S.A."
• Garry Tallent – bass guitar, background vocals
• Steven Van Zandt – rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmony vocals
• Max Weinberg – drums, background vocals

Additional musicians

• Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – background vocals on "Cover Me" and "No Surrender"
• Ruth Davis – background vocals on "My Hometown"

Technical

• Toby Scott – engineer
• Bob Clearmountain – mixing
• John Davenport, Jeff Hendrickson, Bruce Lampcov, Billy Strauss, Zöe Yanakis – assistant engineers
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Bill Scheniman – engineer on "Cover Me"
• Andrea Klein – art direction, design, cover design
• Annie Leibovitz – photography
• David Gahr – additional photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Weekly chart performance for Born in the U.S.A.

Chart (1984–2003)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)	1
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	1
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)	37
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)	1
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)	1
European Albums (European Top 100 Albums)	2
French Albums (SNEP)	2
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	1
Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)	2
Japanese Albums (Oricon)	6
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	1
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)	1
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)	2
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	1
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	1
UK Albums (OCC)	1
US Billboard 200	1

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for Born in the U.S.A.

Chart (1984)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	7
Canadian Albums Chart	1
Dutch Albums Chart	61
Japanese Albums Chart	53
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	2
UK Albums Chart	37
US Billboard 200	28
Chart (1985)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	2
Austrian Albums Chart	4
Canadian Albums Chart	7
Danish Albums Chart	5
Dutch Albums Chart	1
French Albums Chart	19
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	1
Swiss Albums Chart	3
UK Albums Chart	4
US Billboard 200	1
Chart (1986)	Position
Canadian Albums Chart	67
Spanish Albums Chart	11
US Billboard 200	16
Chart (2015)	Position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	94
Chart (2016)	Position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	75
Chart (2017)	Position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	96
Chart (2018)	Position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	98
Chart (2019)	Position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	82
Chart (2020)	Position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	63
Chart (2021)	Position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	157
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	68
Chart (2022)	Position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	156
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	92
Chart (2023)	Position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	142
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)	72
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	54

Certifications and sales

‹See Tfd›‹See Tfd›

Sales certifications for Born in the U.S.A.

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)	14× Platinum	980,000‡
Belgium (BEA)	Platinum	75,000
Brazil	—	100,000
Canada (Music Canada)	Diamond	1,000,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)	3× Platinum	60,000‡
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)	2× Platinum	108,913
France (SNEP)	Platinum	300,000*
Germany (BVMI)	2× Platinum	1,000,000^
Italy (FIMI) sales since 2009	Platinum	50,000*
Italy	—	1,000,000
Japan (Oricon Charts)	—	212,700
Mexico (AMPROFON)	Platinum	250,000‡
New Zealand (RMNZ)	17× Platinum	255,000‡
Portugal (AFP)	Gold	20,000^
South Africa	—	100,000
Spain (PROMUSICAE)	Gold	50,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)	3× Platinum	150,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)	3× Platinum	1,120,000
United States (RIAA)	17× Platinum	17,000,000‡
Summaries
Worldwide	—	30,000,000
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also

• List of best-selling albums
• List of best-selling albums in Australia
• List of best-selling albums in Italy
• List of best-selling albums in New Zealand
• List of best-selling albums in the United States

References

Sources

• Burger, Jeff (2013). Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-61374-437-6.
• Carlin, Peter Ames (2012). Bruce. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-9182-8.
• Dolan, Marc (2012). Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-39308-135-0.
• Gaar, Gillian G. (2016). Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – The Illustrated History. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-76034-972-4.
• Kirkpatrick, Rob (2007). The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-27598-938-5.
• Larkin, Colin (2011). "Bruce Springsteen". Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
• Margotin, Philippe; Guesdon, Jean-Michel (2020). Bruce Springsteen All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. London: Cassell Illustrated. ISBN 978-1-78472-649-2.
• Marsh, Dave (2004). Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts – The Definitive Biography, 1972–2003. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96928-4.
• Springsteen, Bruce (2016). Born to Run. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-4151-5.
• Springsteen, Bruce (2003). Songs. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0862-6.
• Strong, Martin C. (1996). "Bruce Springsteen". The Great Rock Discography. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-86241-604-1.

External links

• Zmbro/Born in the U.S.A. at Discogs (list of releases)