For all of the countless hours they’ve shared a stage together, it’s surprisingly difficult to come across a true duet between Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa.
You can trip over performances where Patti’s vocals back her husband’s, of course–just pick any E Street Band show since 1984. The converse is a lot rarer, but those performances are out there, too.
And while on almost any given night on Broadway, theatergoers were treated to lovely intimate Bruce-and-Patti performances of “Brilliant Disguise” and “Tougher Than the Rest,” these duets were essentially just Patti shadowing Bruce.
If you want a true trading-vocals duet between Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, you’re going to have to look carefully. But at least you don’t have to look far–no further than Asbury Park and the annual school benefit concerts and holiday shows where the Jersey Shore’s first couple made frequent appearances.
On five of those occasions, Bruce and Patti teamed up on a faithful arrangement of Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston’s R&B classic, “It Takes Two.”
“It Takes Two” was a huge hit when it was first released, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Soul Singles chart and #14 on the Pop chart in early 1967.
It clearly made a lasting impression on Bruce–he featured it nightly on the Reunion Tour as the outro to “Two Hearts,” sharing the mic with his lifelong best friend.
But while Bruce has teased us with a snippet of “It Takes Two” with Steve more than 150 times over the years, he’s only performed the entire song five times–all of them with Patti.
Unfortunately, four of those five times either weren’t captured or don’t circulate. One of them, however, did escape into the wild, and what a wonderful listen it provides.
On the evening of December 19, 2004, Bruce staged two holiday benefit shows at Harry’s Roadhouse in Asbury Park, backed by Bobby Bandiera and his band. Patti joined for the late show, and together Bruce and Patti shared a rare spotlight as true partners in a loose (Bruce sounds like he’s at least a couple of tequillas into the evening), joyful performance of “It Takes Two.”
It Takes Two
First performed: April 13, 2002 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: October 17, 2009 (Asbury Park, NJ)
