Greg Kihn did more than cover “Rendezvous” — he gave it a home.
Kihn was one of the earliest artists to cover Bruce–his take on “For You” was distinctive, and Bruce admired it so much that he sought out Kihn when “Rendezvous” didn’t make the cut for Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Bruce caught Kihn’s show at the Roxy and went backstage to hang out and do tequila shots. Bruce hadn’t come empty-handed: he gifted Greg with a cassette of the Darkness outtake, the lyrics to the song, and his blessing for Greg to record it. (Read Greg’s account of that night here.)
Kihn did, as the lead-off track on his 1979 album, With the Naked Eye. Bruce was right–the song was in good hands. Take a listen below:
When Bruce played the song on the Darkness Tour for the first time, he dedicated it to Kihn, whose version hadn’t even been released yet. Kihn repaid the dedication when he performed it live:
On the night of October 21, 1994, Greg Kihn played The Playpen in Sayreville, New Jersey, along with some friends: John Eddie, Marshall Crenshaw, Elliott Murphy… and Bruce Springsteen.
The all-star encore set that followed has been pretty widely circulated among collectors, but the main set that preceded it is harder to come by, and it featured a great cover of “Rendezvous” (even if he didn’t remember all the words). Take a listen:
Great find, thank you for sharing. Another great cover version was The Knack’s version of Don’t Look Back. Love to see a video of that.
https://youtu.be/1pptRg8RW1I
Agreed! That was the topic of one of my earliest blog posts, but I’ve never been able to find an actual video. https://estreetshuffle.com/index.php/2018/01/22/cover-me-the-knack-dont-look-back/