Bruce Springsteen, known as The Boss, had a difficult start on his road to success. It wasn’t until 1972, when he signed a record deal with Columbia Records and released his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., in January, 1973, that he thought he had arrived. Bruce and his New Jersey-based colleagues, who would later be called “The E Street Band”, were on their way to becoming legends, only they didn’t really know that yet.

This first album had critical success, but not so much in the financial end of things. It was quickly followed by their second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, released in September, 1973. Unfortunately it wasn’t two in a row. The second album had little commercial success and almost no critical acclaim. In 1975, however, after more than 14 month of recording, their third album, Born to Run, was released. Number three was the charm. This time the album had both critical and commercial success and was the ultimate door opener for Springsteen and the band.

Born Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen on September 23, 1949 in New Jersey, USA, Bruce got an early start in music. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, worked as a bus driver, and was of Irish and Dutch ancestry. His mother, Adele Ann (Zerilli), worked as a legal secretary, and was of Italian ancestry. He also had an older sister, Virginia, and a younger sister Pamela. Bruce was raised in a good Catholic and Bruce was inspired to take up music when he, at the age of seven, saw Elvis Presley perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1948. When he was 13, Bruce bought his first guitar for for a hard-saved $18.00. Three years later, when Bruce turned 16, his mother took out a loan and bought him a Kent guitar for the whopping price of $60.00 — a lot of money in those days, especially for a bus driver and a legal secretary providing for a family of five.

By 1965 Bruce had parlayed his musical talent to become the lead guitarist in the band The Castiles. He would later become lead singer in the band. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township in New Jersey. From 1969 to 1971 he performed with Steven Van Zandt, Danny Federici and Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez in a band called Child. That band was renamed later to Steel Mill when guitarist Robbin Thompson joined the group.