COLTS NECK, New Jersey — Bruce Springsteen has no shortage of hit records on his resume during a career that has lasted more than 50 years.
And one of those hits, “I’m on Fire,” didn’t take too long to write, according to The Boss.
“That was literally a song I wrote in two minutes. Didn’t even think about it. Didn’t think it was ever going to be on a record,” Springsteen tells singer Zach Bryan in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “And in the studio, there’s me playing that Johnny Cash Tennessee Three guitar. And then there’s the synthesizer and there’s Max [Weinberg] playing a bass foot. I think that’s all that’s on that record.”
It was a productive two minutes. “I’m on Fire” was the fourth single from Springsteen’s hugely popular album “Born in the U.S.A.” The single was released in February of 1985 and reached No. 6 on the Billboard charts. “Born in the U.S.A” produced seven singles that reached the Top 10, most notably “Dancing in the Dark” and the title track.
“There’s nothing on that record (’I’m on Fire’),” Springsteen said. “Wrote it in two minutes. And if you go to iTunes now, it’s the No. 1 favorite song out of every song I’ve written. I wrote that in two minutes!”
The video for the song helped with its success, receiving heavy airplay on MTV and winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
Springsteen, 75, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
