(Note: I’ve used the single covers where possible, but where the song wasn’t released as a single, I’ve used the album cover.)

10. Sherry Darling from The River (1980)
“Well this morning I ain’t fighting tell her I give up, tell her she wins if she’ll just shut up.”

It doesn’t tell an epic story, it’s not a comment on the human condition, it just plain rocks. One of the all time great party songs, this little ditty is an anthem to the joys of watching “the girls down on the beach” and hitting the highway with some beers and your favorite girl – minus of course her freeloading mother.

9. Youngstown from The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
“When I die I want no part of heaven – I would not do heaven’s work well, I pray the devil comes and takes me to stand in the firey furnaces of hell.”

The Boss used to introduce this song as being “a song about losing everything you have after you’ve played by all the rules.” Charting two generations of men who leave their jobs in the refineries of Youngstown go off to fight in overseas wars. When they return they find that the world they left has not changed and that the men who they made “rich enough to forget their names” are still just as rich.

8. Atlantic City from Nebraska (1982)
“Eveything dies baby, that’s a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back, put your makeup on and do your hair real pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City.”

The story of a man who when faced with crippling debts agrees to do “a little favor” for a mobster in Atlantic City. Knowing that the odds of his returing in one peice from doing this job are slim he takes his girlfriend out for one last night out, asking her to “look real pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City.”

7. Darkness of the Edge of Town from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
“I’ll be there on time and I’ll pay the cost for wanting things that can only be found in the darkness on the edge of town.”

Darkness on the Edge of Town is probably the Boss’ best album, less epic in feel than Born to Run and less commercial in sound than Born in the USA. The title track is a heartbreaking tale of circumstances over hope, telling the story of a man who lost his money and lost his wife and who now spends his time in the darkness on the edge of town paying the cost for his broken dreams.

6. Brilliant Disguise from Tunnel of Love (1987)
“We stood at the alter, the gypsy swore our future was right, but come the wee we hours, maybe baby the gypsy lied.”

One of the most tragic of Springsteen’s songs, Brilliant Disguise tells of the futility of a failing relationship. The Boss pleads with his lover to be honest with him asking “is that you baby, or just a brilliant disguise?” Written when Springsteen’s own marriage was on the rocks, it is one of his most intensely personal songs and one that is, when you are aware of the true life circumstances the surround it, almost difficult to listen to.

5. Badlands from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
“I wanna find one face that ain’t looking through me, I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these badlands.”

Air punchingly epic, Badlands is a rallying call to overcome the hopelessness of circumstance and strike out at a world that stacks the deck against you. One of the all time best “roll down the windows and crank the volume up” driving songs, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to relate to the “fuck you, world” message of the song. Inspirational without sounding like the soundtrack to a Rocky montage and featuring some of Max Weinberg’s best drumming ever, Badlands is about having fire in your soul and never giving up on your dreams.

4. Racing in the Street from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
“Tonight my baby and me we’re gonna ride to the sea and wash these sins off our hands.”

From the triumphant to the tragic, Racing in the Street acts as a companion peice to Darkness on the Edge of Town. The story of a man (possibly the same man as in Darkness) who lives a life on monotony, his only release being when summer comes “and the time is right for racing in the street.” His obession with this pastime estrages him from his girlfriend who sits on the porch waiting for him to return but “all her pretty dreams are torn.” The song ends with the man and his girl driving to the sea in an attempt to start a new life together. The song is beautifully constructed and begins with a simple piano riff that is guaranteed to bring a rush of regret and a longing to put right past mistakes over anyone who listens to it.

3. Thunder Road from Born to Run (1975)
“It’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win.”

Epic is the only word to describe it. Springsteen has opened countless hundreds of shows with this song and it’s easy to see why. Starting off with Bruce, a piano and a harmonica the song tells of a boy, a girl and a carfull of dreams. By the end of the song, Bruce and his girl are roaring off to the promised land and, as Clarence Clemons’ triumphant saxophone blasts forth, anyone who ever had a dream is ready to jump in the backseat and go with them.

2. The River from The River (1980)
“Now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse, is a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse?”

Opening with a mournful wail on Bruce’s harmonica and closing with some of the most impassioned singing ever, you can tell that this song really came from Springsteen’s heart. Inspired by the not-exactly-happy marriage of his sister and brother-in-law, The River is about a boy who gets his girlfriend pregnant and is forced to marry her. Ten years later, they are still married and have had to watch every dream and every hope they ever had crushed by the cruel reality of life. Heartbreaking stuff.

1. Born to Run from Born to Run (1975)
“The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive, everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide.”

Before performing an acoutic version of Born to Run, the Boss used to say that in this song he introduced the characters he has come back to time and again in his songs: the young man with a dream and the girl along for the ride. Epic, triumphant and filled with the kind of sweeping majesty that only the Boss can create, Born to Run is a timeless anthem to the hopes and dreams that we all carry with us.

Honorable mentions in no particular order to:
1. Cadillac Ranch from The River (1980)
2. Jungleland from Born to Run (1975)
3. I’m on Fire from Born in the USA (1984)
4. Rosalita (Come out Tonight) from The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle (1973)
5. Cover Me from Born in the USA (1984)
6. Nebraska from Nebraska (1982)
7. Dancing in the Dark from Born in the USA (1984)
8. The Rising from The Rising (2002)
9. Girls in their Summer Clothes from Magic (2007)
10. Adam Raised a Cain from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)

Any one of these songs would be a lesser artist’s very best song, but it seems that the Boss can hammer out genius songs without much more effort than the rest of us use to breathe. This list could easily have been a top 50, and it was incredibly difficult to whittle it down to ten. If you’ve never heard these songs, you simply have to get out there and hear them. They’ll change your life. End transmission.