Ongoing History Daily: The Bruce Springsteen hit he originally wrote for The Ramones
I’m trying to imagine this meeting. Sometime in the late 70s, Joey Ramone ran into Bruce Springsteen in Ashbury Park, New Jersey. Joey knew that his friend Patti Smith had had a big hit with “Because the Night,” a song given to her by Springsteen.
“Why don’t you write me a song?” Joey said? Springsteen said, “Okay. Gimme a minute.”
He went away and wrote “Hungry Heart” and was all prepared to give it to the Ramones when his manager said, “Uh, Bruce? You may want to hang onto that sound. It’s a little too good to give away.”
He recorded it himself, and it became a hit as the lead single off his 1980 album, The River. You gotta wonder what might have happened if the Ramones had got to it first.
