For the life of me, I can’t figure out why “My Lucky Day” never became the monster hit it deserves to be.
I’m not talking about a mainstream pop hit, mind you. Bruce left those days behind a long time ago. But I fully expected “My Lucky Day” to become an instant setlist staple and fan favorite, because it’s not only one of the E Street Band’s best twenty-first century recordings, it’s also the most natural and organic sounding. It sounds like it was written to be played live.
“My Lucky Day” also sounds like the band was playing it for the first time when they laid it down in the studio, and that’s very much by design. Watch Bruce instruct his team on the exact sound (in a very inexact way) that he’s searching for:
Bruce eventually got the sound he was searching for, and the result isn’t just the best modern snapshot of the E Street Band in the studio, it’s also the last. Featuring in-studio contributions from both Clarence and Danny (who would pass away very shortly after “My Lucky Day” was recorded), “My Lucky Day” is a time capsule for Springsteen fans to treasure.
Let’s take a listen.
Had it been released a couple of decades earlier, “My Lucky Day” had all the makings of a pop hit: a terrific hook, a memorable riff and straight-down-the-middle romantic lyrics accessible to even the most casual listener.
But it would be a mistake to dismiss “My Lucky Day” as a light love song. There’s a reason why Bruce launched it ahead of the album.
Working on a Dream is often dismissed as an album of outtakes, but nothing could be further from the truth–it’s actually Bruce’s most thematically cohesive 21st-century album, even more so than The Rising and Magic. Working on a Dream is an album entirely about aging, and the acceptance–even the embrace–of growing old.
“My Lucky Day” captures the essence of Working on a Dream and conveys it in its purest and most celebratory form. Its message is simple: life is long and unpredictable, and it therefore inevitably brings its share of blows and defeats our way. But love isn’t random–it’s enduing, dependable and the surest bet this life provides. When everything else seems to go wrong, we can trust the one by our side to be our anchor.
In the room where fortune falls
On a day when chance is all
In the dark of this exile
I felt the grace of your smile
Honey you’re my lucky day
Baby you’re my lucky day
When I’ve lost all the other bets I’ve made
Honey you’re my lucky day
But that’s not to say that love won’t be tested. Bruce goes on to note that even great loves can fall apart when the going gets tough, and that’s why he’s so determined to nourish and protect his.
Well I’ve seen strong hearts give way
To the burdens of the day
To the weary hands of time
Where fortune is not kind
Honey you’re my lucky day
Baby you’re my lucky day
When I’ve lost all the other bets I’ve made
Honey you’re my lucky day
But there’s a fake-out coming. By this point in the song, we know the narrator is a romantic, but he also comes across a bit self-centered, maybe even desperate. The first two verses are expressions of love, but also of need. But listen carefully to the final verse:
I have waited at your side
I’ve counted the tears you’ve cried
But to win, darling we must play
So don’t hide your heart away
Honey you’re my lucky day
Baby you’re my lucky day
When I’ve lost all the other bets I’ve made
Honey you’re my lucky day
Bruce’s big reveal is that it’s actually the narrator’s love interest who is in the middle of a crisis, and Bruce’s insistence on describing her as his lucky day isn’t a demand–it’s a promise. He’s saying: whether you know it or not, you’ve always been my rock. Now it’s my turn to be yours, no matter how long it takes.
It’s also a plea: thanks to you, I didn’t retreat inside myself and miss out on the joys that life still offers, so don’t close yourself off and miss out on the good that’s in store for you. We’ll face life together, like we always have and always will.
“My Lucky Day” never did become the hit it deserved to be, even though Bruce released it as a standalone single two months in advance of the Working on a Dream album it supported, and despite its inclusion in the Guitar Hero World Tour video game. Although it stubbornly clung to the Adult Alternative chart for ten weeks in the spring of 2009, “My Lucky Day” only peaked briefly at #18.
Perhaps that’s in part due to Bruce’s own seeming ambivalence to the song. Although he played it a handful of times in the earliest shows of the Working on a Dream tour in late March and early April, he inexplicably dropped it from his setlists just as the song started to climb the Billboard chart. By the time he brought it back in early June, the song had almost vanished off the charts and would be entirely gone within a matter of days.
Bruce’s first live performance of “My Lucky Day” was in the tour’s very first public rehearsal show. Following on the heels of opener “Outlaw Pete,” “My Lucky Day” was like an injection of rocket fuel to the crowd, and the show was off to a roar. Watching this great performance (featuring–as on the studio track–great River-esque harmonies from Steve), along with the follow-up from a few months later in Stockholm, it’s mind-boggling why the song didn’t cement itself with fans.
“My Lucky Day” has only made a handful of appearances on subsequent tours, and mostly (I don’t know why) in Scandinavia. If you were lucky enough to be there for any of them, it was undoubtedly an instant show highlight. This clip from Gothenburg in 2012 is easily my favorite live performance (even if Jake wasn’t quite sure what to do when Bruce cued his solo a bit too early).
But even that great performance is rivaled by one other very different one: On June 30, 2013, Bruce made a return visit to Hard Rock Calling in London, and he ended the show with a very unusual encore–an acoustic rendition of “My Lucky Day.” It’s a beautiful, spontaneous arrangement, that serves the song well… maybe even better than its rock arrangement. Bruce’s vocals during the wordless bridge speak volumes, and the third verse in particular is more compelling here than in any other performance. And that coda… just beautiful.
Bring this one back on the next tour, Bruce. Please bring it back.
My Lucky Day
Recorded: early 2008
Released: My Lucky Day (single, 2008), Working on a Dream (2009), The Essential Bruce Springsteen, 2nd Edition (2015)
First performed: March 23, 2009 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: June 25, 2016 (Gothenburg, Sweden)
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