Bruce Springsteen’s‘ Only No. 1 Song’ Was a Cover That the Band ‘Completely Screwed Up’
While Bruce Springsteen has enjoyed decades of success, he has never had a No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. He has come close, with “Dancing in the Dark” reaching No. 2, but he has yet to reach the top spot. A cover of one of his songs has hit No. 1, though. Springsteen thought that a changed line helped push it to the top.
Bruce Springsteen has never gotten a No. 1 hit, but a cover of his song has
Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. opens with the song “Blinded by the Light.” Four years later, the band Manfred Mann’s Earth Band covered the song. Their version, unlike Springsteen’s, made it to No. 1. In the song, Springsteen sings the line “Oh cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.” Manfred Mann’s version tweaked the wording.
“This song is my only number one song,” Springsteen said on VH1’s Storytellers (per Far Out Magazine). “I’ve never had another number one song. Except this one wasn’t done by me, it was done by Manfred Mann, which I appreciate. But, they changed this line. My line says, ‘cut loose like a deuce’, and theirs said, ‘cut loose like a douche’”
He believed the change in the wording made the other version of the song more successful.
“I have a feeling that is why the song skyrocketed to number one, but it worked y’know,” Springsteen said. “Deuce was like Little Deuce Coupe, as in a two-seater hot rod, and a douche is a feminine hygienic procedure. So they are different. What can I say? The public spoke, and they were right, you know.”
Manfred Mann acknowledged that Bruce Springsteen wasn’t a fan of the song
Manfred Mann said the change was not intentional.
“I don’t think Springsteen liked our ‘Blinded By The Light’, ’cos we sang ‘wrapped up like a douche’, and it wasn’t written like that and I screwed it up completely,” he told Record Collector. “It sounded like ‘douche’ instead of ‘deuce’, ’cos of the technical process – a faulty azimuth due to tape-head angles, and it meant we couldn’t remix it.”
He said he found the mix-up embarrassing, but he believed it helped them reach No. 1.
“Warners in America said, ‘You’ve got to change ‘douche’, ’cos the Southern Bible belt radio stations think it’s about a vaginal douche, and they have problems with body parts down there.’ We tried to change it to ‘deuce’ but then the rest of the track sounded horrible, so we had to leave it,” he explained. “We just said, ‘If it’s not a hit, it’s not.’ But in the end, it was No. 1 in America, and so many people came up to us after and said, ‘You know why it made No. 1? … Everyone was talking about whether it was deuce or douche.’ Apparently, Springsteen thought we’d done it deliberately, which we hadn’t, so if I ever saw him I’d avoid him and cringe away like a frightened little boy.”
The ‘Born to Run’ singer worried about being too successful
While Springsteen hasn’t had a song reach No. 1, he is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He admitted that he once worried about reaching a high level of success.
“I was always of two minds about big records and the chance involved in engaging a mass audience,” he wrote in his book Born to Run. “You should be. There’s risk.”
He worried about the impact it could have on his life and his music.
“Was the effort of seeking that audience worth the exposure, the discomfort of the spotlight, and the amount of life that’d be handed over?” he wrote. “What was the danger of dilution of your core message, your purpose, the reduction of your best intentions to empty symbolism or worse?”
