Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen's seventh studio album, came out on Columbia on June 4, 1984, and it's the record that turned him from a working-class hero into a superstar the whole planet knew. He produced it with Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt and Chuck Plotkin, cutting it in New York City with the E Street Band over two years, from January 1982 to March 1984, and some songs dated back to the demo tape that became Nebraska. The sessions threw up somewhere between 70 and 90 songs.

On the surface it's his most pop-friendly record yet, all shimmering synthesizers and a snare drum that cracks like a rifle shot, the sound of mid-'80s rock radio. Underneath, the lyrics carry on where Nebraska left off: hard-up workers, broken promises, love and a deeply complicated patriotism, with a few jokes thrown in. The title track pounds like a parade while its words tell a darker story, "Dancing in the Dark" is restless and itchy, "I'm on Fire" smoulders quietly, and "Glory Days" is a rueful barroom singalong.

It was pushed hard, with seven singles, five videos and three dance remixes, and every single made the US top ten. It topped the charts in nine countries, America and Britain included, became the best-selling album of 1985 and has sold more than 30 million copies, his biggest ever. The cover shot of Springsteen from behind, facing the flag, has turned up on lists of the best album covers ever made. It went into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012, though Springsteen himself later had second thoughts about the album and the fame that came with it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.