Bruce Springsteen is an American singer-songwriter who has recorded almost 400 songs over a career lasting six decades. He began his career in the 1960s with local New Jersey bands the Castiles, Earth, and Steel Mill before embarking on a solo career and signing to Columbia Records in 1972.^[a][3] Since 1973, he has released songs across studio albums, live albums, extended plays, compilation albums, and box sets. His primary backing band is the E Street Band, who have played with him from his debut album to their break-up in the late-1980s, and more sporadically since their reformation in the late 1990s.^[3]

Springsteen is the primary songwriter for the majority of his songs, but he has also released cover material, such as live renditions of the Temptations' "War" (1986) and Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" (1988), which were chart hits,^[4][5] and the cover albums We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006) and Only the Strong Survive (2022).^[6][7] Several of his songs have also been chart hits for other artists, such as "Blinded by the Light" for Manfred Mann's Earth Band, "Because the Night" for Patti Smith, "Fire" for the Pointer Sisters, "This Little Girl" for Gary U.S. Bonds,^[8] and "Pink Cadillac" for Natalie Cole.^[3] Songs Springsteen has written for film soundtracks include "Streets of Philadelphia" (1993),^[9] and "Dead Man Walkin'" (1995),^[10] "Lift Me Up" (1999),^[11] and "Addicted to Romance" (2023).^[12]