Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Blinded By The Light
2. Spirit in the Night
3. For You
4. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
5. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
6. Thunder Road
7. Born To Run
8. Jungleland
9. Badlands
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
11. The Promised Land
12. The River
13. Hungry Heart
14. Nebraska
15. Atlantic City

Disc 2:

1. Born In The U.S.A
2. Glory Days
3. Dancing In The Dark
4. Tunnel Of Love
5. Brilliant Disguise
6. Human Touch
7. Living Proof
8. Lucky Town
9. Streets of Philadelphia
10. The Ghost Of Tom Joad
11. The Rising
12. Mary's Place
13. Lonesome Day
14. American Skin (41 Shots) (Live)
15. Land Of Hope And Dreams (Live)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1648 in Music
• Released on: 2005-04-25
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
For an artist with a career as long and stacked with worthwhile albums as Bruce Springsteen's, greatest hits compilations like The Essential Bruce Springsteen are always a difficult proposition. To pick the best moments from three decades, include all the hits, string them together into a cohesive whole and then cram them onto two CDs that hopefully tell the story of a lifetime's work is a near impossible task. For once though, these 30 tracks do just that. From the early Van Morrison-styled fumblings of "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit of the Night" through to the small-town dreams of escape of "Born to Run" and disillusioned bar-room anthem of "Born in the USA", it chronologically charts the genesis, rise and crowning of the blue-collar hero from New Jersey. Meanwhile, the thick drawl of "Tunnel of Love" and "Streets of Philadelphia" and the quiet introspection of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" remind that as well as being the quintessential American rocker, Springsteen is a songwriter with a unique insight into the human condition. Those who harbour a longstanding devotion to Springsteen will probably feel that there are glaring omissions--other album tracks more essential than some of the ones included here. For everyone else though, The Essential Bruce Springsteen is a phenomenal place to start. --Dan Gennoe

CD Description
This two CD set collects together thirty tracks spanning Bruce Springsteen's varied career so far. The album features some of his most recognisable hits including 'Born In The USA' and 'Born To Run', but also includes tracks taken from hislesser known albums as well. This collection serves as a great introduction into Springsteen's huge back catalogue of work.

Customer Reviews

Almost
In any body of work there are obvious high points, says Bruce Springsteen in his foreword to the "Essential" booklet. The rest depends on who's doing the listening. You know..."one man's coffe is another man's tea, one man's whiskey..."

No doubt Springsteen has had a hard time choosing these thirty songs, and his choices won't please everybody. Why "Tunnel Of Love" is chosen to represent the album of the same name instead of the much better "Tougher Than The Rest" is a mystery, as is the omission of "Waiting On A Sunny Day", "You Can Look (but you better not touch)", and the criminally underrated rocker "Sherry Darling". The nine-minute live rendition of the good-but-not-great "Land Of Hope And Dreams" could certainly have been sacrificed in favour of one or two better songs.

If you're a casual fan, and just want one Springsteen disc in your collection, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" is a fine choice, since it manages to include most of the highlights from his twelve studio albums.
So should you get this one rather than the single-disc "Greatest Hits"? Well, depending on what it is you are looking for, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" is a better career summary in the sense that it is much more comprehensive, and also includes songs from his first two albums. But if you just want the radio hits, "Greatest Hits" is probably more your thing.

The "free" rarities disc includes some great songs, some good ones, and some utterly forgettable ones as well, particularly "Missing" and "Lift Me Up". But I was certainly happy to see that the glorious three-chord rocker "From Small Things (big things one day come)" finally available in an official Springsteen version, and the acoustic rockabilly of "The Big Payback" and the live "Trapped" and "Held Up Without A Gun" are very nice as well.

Hard core Springsteen fans will want this collection for the rarities disc, and newcomers and casual admirers will find "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" to be a comprehensive, if not exhaustive, career overview. The sound is excellent (some remastering and revision has been done by former Bryan Adams and AC/DC-associate Bob Ludwig), and even though the omission of "Waiting On A Sunny Day" and "Tougher Than The Rest" really bugs me, almost all of the thirty songs on the first two discs are excellent examples of the talent and versatility of Bruce Springsteen.
And the fact that only a few songs from "The River" and "Born In The USA" are included means that you can get those two as well without too many overlaps :o)

Solid collection
Although not comprehensive, this 3-disc set is a very good introduction to the magic of Springsteen, one of the few timeless and authentic rock legends of the last three decades. Springsteen rarely disappoints musically but I suppose his image of blue-collar champion is a bit tainted after his involvement in partisan politics in 2004.

Disc One takes the listener from his promising early excursions like 1973s Blinded By The Light and 4th Of July through 1975s brilliant rock anthem Born To Run and 1978s awesome rocker Badlands, the gloomy ballad Darkness On The Edge Of Town and the defiant Promised Land through to 1980s majestic song The River (I really miss Wreck On The Highway here) and 1982s melancholy and brooding Nebraska.

Highlights on Disc Two include the powerful rockers Born In The USA and Glory Days, great hits like Dancing In The Dark, Tunnel Of Love and Brilliant Disguise. For me the most impressive songs here are the introspective numbers like Streets Of Philadelphia and The Ghost Of Tom Joad. Lonesome Day with its country feel, Mary's Place with its horns, and The Rising are beautiful and moving too.

On Disc Three, the live tracks include Held Up Without A Gun, a stirring uptempo rocker and Trapped, a grand brooding ballad. None But The Brave is also grand and beautiful, whilst Lift Me Up is a sensitive ballad with Bruce in falsetto mood. His version of Viva Las Vegas proves he's no Elvis but County Fair is one of those sad ballads that he does so well. This disc concludes with Counting On A Miracle, a beautiful acoustic ballad in folk style.

The chronological sequence was a good idea as one can follow the development of Springsteen's career through the changing sound, the varying themes and the ever more serious approach. Obviously not compiled for completists who will have all the albums and box sets anyway, The Essential Bruce Springsteen is perfect for those who wish to have the most of his best in one place. It's a winner through and through.

Great overview of The Boss' career
A great overview of arguably the greatest solo artist in rock's history, The Essential Bruce Springsteen is by far the best and most comprehensive collection of the artist's work. It is does by any means however, offer a thorough overview of his music. For Springsteen, and other artists of a similar quality, at least four disks would be required to completely cover the highlights of an artist whose career now spans over three decades and counting.

The three disk set includes all the obvious choices one would expect, such 'Born in the USA', 'The Streets of Philadelphia', and of course 'Born to Run' which remains his finest song. But it wisely drops some hits from albums that contained a large number of them (eg Born in the USA which managed an amazing seven top 10 hits in the US) and includes some of Springsteen's lesser known gems from other albums, which make the collection a fairer overview of his whole career.

Thankfully, this collection includes tracks from his first two albums, which the first Greatest hits did not. 'Blinded by the Light' and especially 'Rosalita', long a concert favourite, are the two best from this part of the CD.

One of the two live songs, '41 shots', is one of the highlights. My main complaint about the second disk is its inclusion of the 9+ minute 'Land of Hope and Dreams', a good song no doubt, but hardly one of Springsteen's best. The 9 minutes it takes up would surely have been put to better use by including two studio songs.

The third disk, for me at least, is a bit excessive, containing not hits but rarities. If this disk does not interest you either you may be better off buying the cheaper two CD edition.

Since Springsteen's decision last year to support Kerry in the US election, a lot of his fans across the pond have shunned him and his music. But anyone who pays even a bit of attention to his songs and especially the lyrics should have known all along where his political allegiance lay, and what the message of his music was. Writing 'The Streets of Philadelphia', about an aids sufferer, was one sign of his liberal beliefs, as was '41 shots', a protest against the gung ho shooting of an African immigrant by New York police, as were lyrics such as 'Poor men wanna be rich, rich men wanna be kings, and a king ain't satisfied till he rules everything'. It is Bruce Springsteen's tales of the everyday working man that make him such a musical and lyrical force.