The Bruce Springsteen Song That Reportedly Almost Went to Elvis Presley

Almost every musician has a moment, usually in their early life, when they see or hear another musician and are so profoundly electrified that they have no choice but to pick up an instrument of their own and start to play. 

For Bruce Springsteen, that moment came when he saw Elvis Presley performing “Hound Dog” as a child. Decades later, when Springsteen was a rock and roll legend himself, he made an effort to get Presley to perform a song he’d written just for him. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on the Boss or the King's side.

Elvis Presley’s Impact on Bruce Springsteen

It was a track that took the world by storm and influenced countless musicians, including Springsteen. Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” was a rollicking cover that scandalized half its listeners and made others want to pick up a lot more of what Presley was putting down. Springsteen fell firmly into the latter camp. 

“When I heard it, it just shot straight through to my brain,” Springsteen told the BBC. “I realized, suddenly, that there was more to life than what I'd been living. I was then in pursuit of something, and there'd been a vision laid out before me. You were dealing with the pure thrust, the pure energy of the music itself. I was so very young, but it still hit me like a thunderbolt.”

It was Presley’s 1956 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, though, that truly inspired Springsteen to step into his own rock star shoes.

“It wasn’t just the way Elvis looked,” Springsteen said, according to Clinton Heylin’s E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. “It was the way he moved that made people crazy, p***ed off, driven to screaming ecstasy and profane revulsion. That was [the power of] television. I had to get a guitar the next day. I stood in front of the mirror with that guitar on, and I knew that that was what had been missing.”

Though it took a while for Springsteen to start playing that guitar, his career accelerated quickly after he formed the E Street Band in the early 1970s. By the middle of the decade, Born to Run was out, and Springsteen had become a music superstar who was looking to write quality songs for other artists as well as himself.

In May 1977, Springsteen went to see Presley perform live at the Spectrum in Philadelphia alongside bandmate Stevie Van Zandt. Unfortunately, Presley was suffering from health issues at the time. It “was not a good night,” according to Springsteen.

Saddened by Presley’s state at the show, Springsteen reportedly went home and wrote the song “Fire,” which he hoped to give to the musician who had inspired him so much. Unfortunately, the artist died before Springsteen had the chance, passing away at the age of just 42 that August.

“I decided to give the song to Robert Gordon because his voice is a little like Elvis,” Springsteen said. “When I hear him, I kinda get the impression that Elvis is singing it.”

The song has since been covered dozens of times, though the most popular version is the Pointer Sisters’ 1978 take, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Still, it's hard not to wonder what Presley could have done with it.

Bruce Springsteen’s Lifelong Affection For Elvis Presley

When it came to Presley, Springsteen was a verified superfan. He had actually visited Graceland in 1976 and jumped over the wall in an effort to reach his idol.

“I remember we got out of the cab, and we stood there in front of those gates with the big guitar players on ’em,” Springsteen said at one of his concerts. “And when we looked up the driveway, in the second story of the house, you could see a light on, and I figured that Elvis has gotta be up readin’ or somethin.’ And I told Steve, I said, ‘Steve, man, I gotta go check it out.’ And I jumped up over the wall, and I started runnin’ up the driveway, which, when I look back on it now, was kind of a stupid thing to do because I hate it when people do it at my house.”

Springsteen later reflected further on what could have been. “I used to wonder what I would have said if I had knocked on the door and if Elvis had come to the door,” he said. “Because it really wasn't Elvis I was going to see, but it was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody's ear and somehow we all dreamed it.”

If they had met, it could have actually gone somewhat well, as Presley was apparently aware of Springsteen and was even something of a fan. “He liked Springsteen…” Presley’s childhood friend George Klein said in an interview on SiriusXM’s Elvis Radio. “[Springsteen] came on the scene real quick and hard and heavy, and Elvis liked [him] because he was a rock ‘n’ roller.” 

The two never had the chance to cross paths. But Springsteen has continued to pay tribute to the man who first inspired him to pick up a guitar and opened his entire future to him. 

“There have been a lotta tough guys. There have been pretenders. And there have been contenders,” Springsteen once said. “But there is only one king.”

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