“Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen

"Cover Me" was written for somebody else. David Geffen, a friend of Jon Landau's, asked whether Bruce Springsteen might come up with something for Donna Summer, freshly signed to Geffen Records, and this is what he wrote. Landau heard a hit and wouldn't give it away, so Springsteen wrote Summer "Protection" instead, and "Cover Me" became the second single off Born in the U.S.A. in 1984.

The E Street Band first cut it as a demo at New York's Hit Factory on January 25, 1982, while Springsteen was also recording Gary U.S. Bonds' On the Line, and he redid it at the Power Station on May 12, working through nine takes. Neil Dorfsman recorded it, Bob Clearmountain mixed it, and Roy Bittan's synthesizer and Max Weinberg's drums give it a hard, glossy pulse. Springsteen didn't think much of the song back then; it went gold in the US anyway.

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