“Waiting On A Sunny Day” by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen's "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" landed on The Rising in 2002, cut with the E Street Band, but it's a stowaway on that record. Much of The Rising answered the September 11 attacks; this one came earlier. Springsteen wrote and recorded a version in 1998 or 1999 that has never been released, and the band ran through it at a June 17, 1999 soundcheck on the Reunion Tour without ever playing it at a show on that tour. It was finally recut in Atlanta for The Rising, with Brendan O'Brien producing.

It's the album's sunniest stretch, a simple, bouncy tune with Soozie Tyrell's violin riding over drums and acoustic guitars, and a lyric about a couple holding on to hope. America never got it as a single, but Europe did, and Sweden made it a hit.

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