“Girlfriend” or “Girlfiend”?
We may never know, because it’s too late to ask the songwriter, and the titular word never actually appears in the lyrics.
Still, the mainstream consensus is that Slim Dunlap’s 1996 infectious album track had a typo in its original release, both on the album cover and the disc itself.
But that wouldn’t explain while it was still spelled that way on a 2005 re-issue with new album art.
Or on a 2013 tribute album on the same record label.
Or why Dunlap himself introduced the song as “Girlfiend” when he played it live.
Yet common wisdom says that was a typo, and Bruce Springsteen seems to be among the many who insist on inserting the missing “r” in the title, as he did when he revealed an until-then unknown studio cover of the song by the E Street Band during an E Street Radio appearance two days after Dunlap’s passing.
Count me among the few who think Bruce is among the many who simply mis-read the title all these years.
It’s still a great cover of a great song by a powerful rock and roll voice who left us too soon.
Girlfiend
Recorded: 2023
Never released
Never performed
© September 6, 2026
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