The cover of the Ronnie Spector and the E Street Band single, “Say Goodbye to Hollywood.”
Members of the E Street Band played on all of Bruce Springsteen’s early studio albums, of course, but did not receive official credit as the E Street Band (rather than just as individual musicians) on a Springsteen recording until the 1986 boxed set, Live/1975-85.
Their first recording credit as the E Street Band, actually, was on Ronnie Spector’s 1977 single, “Say Goodbye to Hollywood.”
The entire band, including Springsteen, performed on her recording of the Billy Joel song, which Joel has said he wrote with her in mind. (It’s also on Joel’s 1976 album, Turnstiles.) The single’s B-Side, also featuring the E Street Band (though without Springsteen), is devoted to Spector’s version of the Steven Van Zandt-written song, “Baby Please Don’t Go.”
Spector, best known as the lead singer for The Ronettes, appeared on Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes 1976 debut album, I Don’t Want to Go Home, which was produced by Van Zandt; she duets on the Springsteen-written “You Mean So Much to Me.” She has also made guest appearances at several shows by Springsteen and the E Street Band; introducing her to the crowd at the Palladium in New York in 1976, Springsteen called her “somebody really special” as well as someone “who I love and wanted to marry ever since I heard her first record. … and I still do.”
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. To see the entire list, click here.
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