Bruce Springsteen started his latest project with the intention of releasing new tracks created by other writers, but the singer quickly realized that his heart wasn’t in the songs he had recorded. He scraped that idea and focused on recording this version which became a soul cover album. In a recent chat on E Street Radio, Springsteen gave the inside scoop on how he eventually landed on the title ‘Only the Strong Survive’ for his latest album release.
“The original title of the record started out as ‘Soul Days,’ which made a lot of sense because that’s a Dobie Gray cut that really defines my feelings for soul music and what we’re in the process of trying to do,” shared Springsteen about the original title that he came up for his album that evolved as he kept cutting songs. “That title turned into ‘Night Shift’ after we cut ‘Night Shift.’ I said, ‘Oh no, it’s got to be ‘Night Shift,’ ‘Night Shift’ is great, and that’s a great title for the record.’”
He continued to explain how the album ended with its current title; he said, “Then shortly thereafter, I was already working on a sequel because I keep myself very busy. As the sequel, I said, well, the first song I’m going to cut for a sequel to this record is this is a song called ‘Only the Strong Survive’ because that’s a great title and John Landau said no, we should use that title now that’s such a good title. So I came home, went in, and in a day, I cut ‘Only the Strong Survive,’ and that’s where we sit.”
As some of you might be in the know, the Boss’ last album of original material was released in 2020 with ‘Letter To You.’ In his latest release, ‘Only The Strong Survive,’ the rocker chose to cover soul classics from his youth instead of releasing an album featuring new tracks.
