Writer: Bruce Springsteen
Producers: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, and Mike Appel
Recorded: Spring 1975 at the Record Plant in New York City
Released: August 1975
| Players: | Bruce Springsteen — vocals, guitar Garry Tallent — bass Clarence Clemons — tenor saxophone Roy Bittan — piano Max Weinberg — drums Randy Brecker — trumpet, flugelhorn Michael Brecker — tenor saxophone David Sanborn — baritone saxophone Wayne Andre — trombone |
| Album: | Born To Run (Columbia) |
A longtime staple of Bruce Springsteen's live shows, "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" was released as a single with the B-side "She's The One."
In the song, Springsteen creates a semifactual, semifictional history of the assembling of his E Street Band.
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" provided guitarist "Miami" Steve Van Zandt's entree into the E Street Band. Springsteen was dissatisfied with the horn charts he and pianist Roy Bittan had written for the song. Van Zandt, an old friend and bandmate of Springsteen's from Asbury Park, happened to be in the studio, and Springsteen asked him for help. Van Zandt told the highly priced session horn team to put away their charts, and he sang each player his part, which they then duplicated. After that display, Springsteen turned to co-producer and manager Mike Appel and said, "I've been meaning to tell you — he's the new guitar player."
Born To Run was Springsteen's third release, and it reached Number Three on the Billboard 200.
The album was assisted by a $250,000 advertising campaign, as well as Springsteen's unexpected appearance on the cover of Time and Newsweek in the same week (the October 27th issues) in 1975.
