“Open All Night” by Bruce Springsteen

"Open All Night" is where Bruce Springsteen plugs in on Nebraska, his stark 1982 solo album: of the record's 10 songs, it's the only one with an electric guitar, and he rips through a Chuck Berry-style riff like a man fighting to stay awake at the wheel. Springsteen wrote it, sang it and played the guitar, with Mike Batlan handling the recording.

The story is pure Jersey night driving, a nameless guy tearing all night across the state's industrial sprawl to reach Wanda, the girl he'd met while she was waitressing at the Bob's Big Boy on Route 60. It was never a US single, but rock radio played it enough to push it to No. 22 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks. On the 2006 Sessions Band Tour he blew it up into an eight-minute big-band swing rave-up.

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