Songoftheday 10/16/13 - The times are tough now just getting tougher, this old world is rough it's just getting rougher...

Bruce Springsteen - "Cover Me"
from the album Born In The U.S.A. (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen, who kicked off his 1984 with his biggest pop single to date, "Dancing In The Dark". I admit I wasn't a fan at the time of the song (as I feel he wasn't either), but I quickly turned around with his follow-up, the cha-cha rock of "Cover Me". Written by Bruce and produced by the singer with bandmate Little Stevie, Jon Landau, and Chuck Plotkin, "Cover Me" was angrier, and had a guitar hook that somehow wouldn't let go of my brain. Oddly enough, there never was a music video for the song, live or otherwise...

"Cover Me" became the second top-10 single from Born In The U.S.A. in October of 1984, while scaling up to #3 on the rock radio chart in Billboard. Internationally, the record went top-20 in Britain, Australia, and Canada.

Looking back, as much as I preferred this song to "Dancing", it's the latter whose lyrics really resonate now, though I do appreciate the simple paranoia of this track.

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"Cover Me", like Bruce's preceding single "Dancing In The Dark", was given a remix overhaul by dance music guru Arthur Baker, and his "Undercover Mix" traveled the club play chart to #11....

Bruce's adlibs on the mix actually influenced his live treatment of the song....here he is in 1984..

...and a year later in Paris...

..and finally, from this year in London...

Up tomorrow: a "city" band has got an addiction.