“Hungry Heart” by Bruce Springsteen

"Hungry Heart" was the lead single from The River, Bruce Springsteen's fifth album, in 1980, and it became his first top-five hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It nearly went to somebody else. Joey Ramone asked Springsteen for a song after they met in Asbury Park, and he wrote this one that same night, but Jon Landau, his producer and manager, told him to keep it: too many of his catchy tunes had already become hits for other people.

Smart call. The band rolls it out like a boardwalk carousel, Roy Bittan's piano and Danny Federici's organ bright on top, Clarence Clemons blowing sax, and Flo & Eddie, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles, singing backup. Springsteen's vocal was sped up a touch on tape, which gives it a strange, boyish lift. The title comes from Tennyson's "Ulysses".

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