When Bruce was ready to release his next album, "Born To Run", he had mixed feelings. His previous two albums had done so poorly in sales that Columbia was not excited at all about releasing another Bruce Springsteen album. It was the album nobody wanted. Columbia was also focusing on acts such as Chicago, Barbara Streisand, and Paul Simon. With only 90.000 copies sold of his previous two records and singles, "Born To Run" was going to be Bruce's make or break record.
"Here comes the third album, and I guess everybody's excited about it. My time has come, but I'm not going to count on it. I don't count on nothing. I stopped doing that a long time ago. Anything that happens now is icing on the cake."
Bruce had no choice but to try and make a succesfull record. If he didn't, he would loose his recording contract. Bruce was still claimed to be the "new Bob Dylan" and he knew he somehow had to transfer the vitality and spirit of his live shows to an album as neither of his two previous albums had been up to his live show standars.
The recording of "Born To Run" started in August, 1974. The only thing Bruce had going for him at that time was the title track, which was doing well at his live shows. He attempted some sessions at the 914 Studio, but Landau, now co-producing his work, switched to NYC's Record Plant. "The album became a monster", Bruce recalled, and "ate up everyone's life". There was a lot of pressure, especially from CBS. The recording sessions dragged on until early 1975. Two members of the original E Street band were gone (Vini Lopez was fired and David Sancious left for a solo career). Production costs for Born to Run had gone over $50,000 and Bruce's direction and purpose were at the lowest point ever. He insisted time after time that the album was not ready for release. He'd fall asleep during mixing sessions. Columbia was applying much pressure to "get it out", and he and Landau argued at one point with Bruce throwing a finished master copy out a hotel window. Bruce even considered scrapping the entire project and releasing a live album.
"I hated it. I couldn't stand to listen to it."
Landau eventually won out, telling Springsteen, "You're not supposed to like it. You think Chuck Berry sits around listening to Maybelline? And when he does hear it, don't you think he wishes a few things could be changed. Get the album out!"
Bruce looked at different titles for the release, considering "American Summer", "The Legend of Zero & Blind Terry", "From the Churches to the Jails", "War and Roses", and "The Hungry and the Hunted". In the end, the title track was used for the name of the album and the press and public immediatley went crazy. "Born To Run" became one of the key albums of the decade. It wasn't perfect, but it projected an epic grandeur which rock 'n' roll had been missing for many years. Springsteen took everyday characters, occurrences and locations and spun them into myths which the majority of America could relate to. Springsteen had delivered - really delivered - and fans were blown away.
Columbia was also extremely impressed and spent an additional $100,000 to $150,00 on promoting "Born To Run" which at that time this was unheard-of. It was money well spent for them once the media frenzy began. Bruce's celebrity status only sky rocketed when he was featured on the covers of "Time" and "Newsweek" both at the same time becoming the first "non-political" figure ever to achieve that distinction. Were Bruce was once an East-Coast cult hero he now had the status of a world star.
Commenting on his previous obscurity, many critics felt he was a creation of the media, and would quickly fade. Bruce spoke of his previous musical isolation from the main stream and the impact it had on his career.
"I can't explain how isolated we were. The local scene was completely disconnected from New York, where you stood a chance of getting discovered, and there wasn't this localism movement like there is now in pop music. I was from Jersey! Most people viewed Jersey as a small refinery that sat between Philly and New York. There certainly wasn't any record company people coming to Asbury Park.
Years later, Bruce would recall the criticism and remark; "The good part is that we worked for years and the thing that sustained us is that we did shows and shows and shows. The thing I always had, once I had made it, and I saw myself on the cover of Time and Newsweek, and people were writing that I had been invented by the record companies, was that I always had those shows to fall back on. I knew i hadn't been invented by any record company."
Though the song "Born To Run" only made it to number 23 on the American charts in 1975, many rock 'n' roll fans and critics voted the track as one of the greatest songs of all time. Bruce has described "Born To Run" as "my shot at the title, a 24 year old kid aimin' at the greatest rock and roll record ever". And you know what, he probably accomplished it.
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