When Bruce Springsteen revealed his eight desert island discs on BBC Radio back in 2016, The Four Tops made the cut.
“I had to have some Motown,” Bruce explained, “because Motown was an incredible part of my youth. Also, if you wanted to know how to write, how to structure successful pop records, you could learn it all from Motown. The sound of the band, the importance of a great singer. Motown was the school where you wanted to go to learn your craft.”
Bruce’s list also includes Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and other rock icons–artists he’s covered time and again. The Four Tops hold the distinction of being the desert island artists Bruce has covered the least (and hardly at all–you’ll have to look well beyond his standard tour performances to find them).
There was one Four Tops song that almost made the Springsteen concert cut, though: their 1965 hit “Something About You.”
“Something About You” climbed as high as #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year, and to #9 on the R&B Chart. And while it may not have been Bruce’s desert island song of choice (that honor belongs to “Baby, I Need Your Loving”), it did inspire one of Bruce’s own singles.
The riff from “Something About You” bears a strong resemblance to “Pink Cadillac,” and when Bruce broke out the latter song during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, he didn’t even try to hide his influence.
But it would take a few more years before Bruce would play the original on stage–and even then only during a rehearsal. One January day at the Expo Theater in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, Bruce and the E Street Band took a break from practicing their new Tunnel of Love material and tackled the Four Tops classic instead.
Bruce’s arrangement was pretty faithful to the original–a bit brighter, thanks to the full horn section, but instantly recognizable from the riff, even if his vocals are too distant to be fully made out.
Springsteen never did get around to performing it on stage, then or ever. But then again, Bruce hasn’t toured since shortly after revealing his desert island influences, so don’t count out a Four Tops appearance in his set list in 2023.
Something About You
First performed: January 28, 1988 (Fort Monmouth, NJ) (soundcheck only)
Last performed: January 28, 1988 (Fort Monmouth, NJ) (soundcheck only)
