Springsteen's 'Blinded by the Light' initially flopped, later became a hit

According to Collider, Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light" was released in 1973 as a single from his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., but it did not perform well commercially.

The song is now regarded as one of Springsteen's strongest early compositions, but its unconventional structure and folk‑rock arrangement failed to find mainstream radio at the time and it did not chart. In 1976 Manfred Mann's Earth Band covered the track on their album The Roaring Silence, reworking the arrangement into a more radio‑friendly form and removing folk‑rock elements; their version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and reintroduced the song to a larger audience. The cover remains Manfred Mann's Earth Band's most‑streamed song on Spotify.

The Boss himself described the song as autobiographical, saying, "I was 23 years old, I wanted to create my own ridiculous language." Today "Blinded by the Light" is considered an essential part of Springsteen's early catalog and one of his most recognizable tracks, even though its mainstream popularity largely followed the Manfred Mann cover and its initial commercial failure has since become less significant.

Key Topics

Culture, Bruce Springsteen, Manfred Mann, Spotify, Asbury Park