When producer Jon Landau told him Born in the U.S.A. was missing a hit single, Springsteen reportedly snarled, "Look, I've written seventy songs. You want another one, you write it." Despite this reaction, Springsteen sat in his hotel room and wrote "Dancing in the Dark" in a single night. It sums up his state of mind, his feeling of isolation after the success of his album The River, and his frustrations of trying to write a hit single.

The title for "Kitty's Back," from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was inspired by a neon sign Springsteen saw promoting the return of popular stripper at a Jersey Shore club.

On the night the planet Springsteen was discovered, his music had entertained the observers. You will need a telescope to see this minor planet as its maximum brightness is some 1/49088 of the brightness of the faintest objects that can be seen with the unaided eye.

Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by Bono, a favor he returned in 2005 when U2 was inducted.

Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

When Columbia Records president Clive Davis heard Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., he felt that it lacked a potential hit single and rejected it. Springsteen quickly wrote "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night", and Columbia accepted the revised album.

Born in the U.S.A. became one of the best-selling albums of all time with seven singles hitting the Top 10, including the title track, which was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans.

In early 1993, Philadelphia director Jonathan Demme asked Springsteen to write a song for his film, adding "I want it to play in the malls." Springsteen replied, "Well, I'm interested, so I'd like to come up with a song for you. If you give me some time, I'll see, but I can't promise." Springsteen recalled adding, "I'm not very good at scores". In late August, after recording a demo of "Streets of Philadelphia", he mailed the tape to Demme, who later said, "my wife and I sat down and listened to it, and we were literally weeping by the end."