If you only knew Bruce Springsteen from his official studio recordings, you’d probably raise an eyebrow at the notion of him covering a song like “Whole Lotta Love.”
It’s a classic, of course, the first hit single for Led Zeppelin in the U.S. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #1 in Australia and Germany.
Over the years since its 1969 release, “Whole Lotta Love” has garnered honor after honor. Rolling Stone ranked it #75 on their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list, BBC Radio 2 considers it to have the all-time greatest guitar riff, and the song is firmly enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
But still: Bruce and the E Street Band are known for rock and roll, not hard rock, and “Whole Lotta Love” is one hard-rocking song.
Maybe that’s why Bruce and the band technically didn’t cover it at all–they only sound checked it once, (and only for a minute or so) way back in September 1978 before one of his legendary shows at the Capitol Theater in Passaic.
Still, listening to that one minute of audio, one can’t help but be stunned by Springsteen’s ferocity on the guitar. But then we remember Bruce’s pre-label days fronting the hard-rock band Steel Mill and we realize songs like this are right in his wheelhouse.
Even though he’d left those days a good eight years in the past, this one-time only recording is a great reminder that guitar heroes never die–they just save it up for the occasional sound check.
Whole Lotta Love
First performed: September 20, 1978 (Passaic, NJ) – soundcheck only
Last performed: September 20, 1978 (Passaic, NJ) – soundcheck only
