What were you doing 25 years ago today?
If you were a rock fan, you might very well have been heading to your local record store for the biggest album of the year -- Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." Yes, 25 years ago today The Boss released what most still regard as his biggest album. It spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billbord charts and hit the top spot in seven other countries. It didn't leave the Billboard 200 until almost three years had passed. More than 25 million copies have been sold in the 25 years since.
"Dancing in the Dark" became the biggest smash, hitting No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Six other songs made Billboard's Top 10. The video for "Dancing in the Dark" made Courteney Cox a star. She later went on to success in the sitcom, "Friends." Annie Liebovitz took the picture for the cover of album. In 1989 Rolling Stone ranked it as the sixth-best album of the 1980s and in 2003 called it the 85th best album of all time. According to Wikipedia, it also became the first CD manufactured for commercial release in the United States. Until then, CDs were imported from Japan.
I remember sometime during the album's near three-year run thinking I was cool because I checked "Born in the U.S.A." out from my local library -- the album, not the CD. I didn't have a CD player until at least five years later. I don't even remember if I liked the album. But everyone else did, so I had to have it. I took my prized possession, my tape-recorder, and set it next to the speaker in the family room while I played the album on our stereo. Anyone who walked by was immediately shushed. Maybe this was the beginning of my career in librarianship.
Here's the track listing for those of you trying to remember:
Side one
"Born in the U.S.A." – 4:39
"Cover Me" – 3:27
"Darlington County" – 4:48
"Working on the Highway" – 3:11
"Downbound Train" – 3:35
"I'm on Fire" – 2:37
Side two
"No Surrender" – 4:00
"Bobby Jean" – 3:46
"I'm Goin' Down" – 3:29
"Glory Days" – 4:15
"Dancing in the Dark" – 4:00
"My Hometown" – 4:34