Rear-View Mirror: The Song Bruce
Springsteen Wrote for a King
Each week on Rear-view Mirror, Rich Terfry and the Radio 2 team look back at a great song from the good ol’ days. Today, Bruce Springsteen's "Fire".
In the spring of 1977, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song that he would later think must have been cursed.
Rich Terfry gives you the back story on the song Bruce Springsteen wrote for Elvis.
It all started when Springsteen saw Elvis Presley perform in Philadelphia in May of ’77. Springsteen decided that night that he was going to write a song for The King. Over the next few months, he wrote and recorded a song called “Fire”. When it was done, he sent a copy of the demo to Elvis. But it arrived just a day or two after he died, on August 16th, 1977.
Springsteen then decided to record the song himself. It went into a pool of 52 songs that were considered for inclusion on the albumDarkness on the Edge of Town. Although Springsteen hadn't recorded a hit at this point in his career, he thought he might have a winner on his hands with this one. But he decided not to include it onDarkness on the Edge of Town. He guessed his label would want to release the song as a single, but felt it wasn't representative of the vision he had for the album as a whole.
In 1978, Springsteen was in London, England and saw the legendary guitarist Link Wray perform. The support act that night was rockabilly musician Robert Gordon. After the show, Springsteen offered "Fire" to him.'
Robert Gordon released the song as a single. Although it didn't become a hit for him, it did grab the attention of producer Richard Perry, who was working with the Pointer Sisters at the time. It was an unusual choice for the R&B group but Perry insisted they take a crack at it.
Although Bruce Springsteen chose to not include "Fire" on his own album, he was very upset when it became a bigger hit for the Pointer Sisters than anything on his Darkness on the Edge of Town album. And the song was huge for the Pointer Sisters. It went to number one in several countries around the world, including New Zealand where it knocked "YMCA" by the Village People off the top spot. It was eventually succeeded at number one by "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees.
Here’s the song that Bruce Springsteen wrote for a king, only to have it fall into the wrong hands - here’s "Fire" on Rear View Mirror.