Top 10 Bruce Springsteen Covers

Bruce and Fellow New Jerseyan Danny DeVito (Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

Bruce Springsteen has covered plenty of other artists in his time and plenty have covered him. Sifting through all the badly executed YouTube recordings of commensurately bad folk singers, we’ve found the Top 10 Bruce Springsteen Covers. Care to differ? Leave a comment.

10. David Bowie - “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” (from Sound and Vision): A rare cut that can be found on just a couple of compilations, Bowie takes Bruce’s sparse street corner serenade and massages it with his trademark guitar sound and a great string arrangement.

9. Damien Jurado/Rosie Thomas – “Wages of Sin” (from Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska): It’s hard to beat the original recording but Jurado and Thomas do an admirable job, wisely staying close to the song’s original arrangement.

8. Pete Yorn - “New York City Serenade” (from It’s a Mad Dog’s Promenade): Yorn makes the song his own, opting to make tracks for the first verse in short order and keeping his arrangement simple in the process.

7. The Band - “Atlantic City” (from Jericho): There are very few bands up to this song, arguably one of the most haunting cuts in the Springsteen catalog. But, with Levon crying out the lead vocals, the Band turn this into something altogether different, like a song that might be played at a New Orleans party.

6. John Wesley Harding - “Jackson Cage” (from One Step Up, Two Steps Back: The Songs of Bruce Springsteen): Rockers turned ballads don’t often work very well but Harding, who’s among the world’s most underrated singer/songwriters, makes it work. The violin solo is spectacular and the harmonies are delicately wrought and tasteful. The visuals in this video are a pretty moving accompaniment.

5. Patty Griffin - “Stolen Car” (from 1000 Kisses) – With a just her voice and her guitar, Griffin plumbs the essence of this song and turns it into a gripping slice of Americana, delivering it with as much heart as Bruce himself.

4. Johnny Cash - “Highway Patrolman” (from Johnny 99): While Bruce chose to sit behind the beat a little on his version, Johnny digs in and drives it forward, telling the story more forthrightly, making his cover more powerful than the original.

3. Steve Earle - “State Trooper” (Live): Two entirely different songs when held in the hands of two artists of equal talent. Springsteen’s is dark and misty, Earle’s is down and dirty.

2. Bettye Lavette - “Streets of Philadelphia” (Live): Alone on the stage, Bettye and a piano and the words of the Boss. Pure soul that speaks for itself.

1. Johnny Cash – “Further On Up the Road” (from American Recordings V: A Hundred Highways): At age 71, Cash recorded the basic tracks for the last of his American Recording sessions. He sang “”Got on my dead man’s suit and my smilin’ skull ring/My lucky graveyard boots and song to sing.” Then he passed away before the record was released.

More of Michael’s Top 10 picks can be found here …