Roll of the Dice: Here She Comes Walkin’

We’re so used to hearing it performed as a lead-in to “I Wanna Mary You” (in fact, that’s the only way we’ve ever heard it for all of its 69 live outings), that you’d be forgiven for not realizing that “Here She Comes Walkin'” is an original Springsteen song all on its own.

In fact, not only is it a separate song, it actually pre-dates “I Wanna Marry You” by several years, appearing on at least two preliminary album sequences for what would become Born to Run as far back as the spring of 1974.

“Here She Comes Walkin'” certainly fits with Bruce’s songwriting from that period; this is a bold, soaring, romantic doo-wop ode that wears its heart brazenly on its sleeve.

It’s a song for anyone who ever fell instantly and fleetingly and love with someone they’d never seen before until they crossed paths as strangers on the street. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all dreamt this dream even if we’d never heard the song before.

Well sometimes at night when I lie in bed
I still see her face running ’round my head
Well sometimes at night when I lie in bed
I still see her face running ’round my head

Here she comes walking down the street
Here she comes walking down the street
She’s looking so fine, she’s looking so sweet
Yes she’s looking so fine, she’s looking so sweet
And someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will
Someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will

Someday she’s gonna stop instead of walking by
She’s gonna stop now instead of walking by
She’s gonna stop instead of walking on by
She’s gonna stop…

The lyrics are simple, as most great doo-wop lyrics are. But that’s okay–the secret to songs like these aren’t in the lyrics or even the music but in the delivery. It’s about soaring vocals, gorgeous harmonies, and passionate emoting.

Bruce delivered all of the above in spades on the original River Tour, segueing out of “Here She Comes Walkin'” and into “I Wanna Marry You” (a brilliant pairing if ever there was one) on a cloud of “little girls.” (This was prior to the National Organization for Women having a heart-to-heart with Bruce about his habit of infantilizing women in song.)

Thirty-five years later, when Bruce revived the River Tour for one more go-round, “Here She Comes Walkin'” came with it, once again serving as a nightly introduction to “I Wanna Marry You.” And once again, Bruce surrendered himself to the song, occasionally to unintentional comic effect.

While we know that “Here She Comes Walkin'” dates back to the Born to Run era, we don’t actually know if the song we heard on both River Tours is the same song that almost made Bruce’s third album. There are no studio session logs that indicate he ever recorded it, and no bootlegs of the song prior to 1980 have ever surfaced.

It’s interesting to note that during the Tunnel of Love Tour in 1988, Bruce often prefaced “All That Heaven Will Allow” with an original opening melody that featured only a single but familiar lyric.

How much either live version of “Here She Comes Walkin'” has in common with what Bruce wrote back in 1974 is a mystery and likely to remain that way… unless Bruce surprises us one day with a new outtake collection that includes it.

Let’s hope.

Here She Comes Walkin’
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: October 11, 1980 (Chicago, IL)
Last performed: July 28, 2016 (Oslo, Norway)

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