With a new album of old soul covers on the way, let’s take a look at a few more classics from the deep trove of R&B standards Bruce has covered over the years. We’ll start with one you almost certainly know but almost certainly haven’t heard him perform live.
That’s because “Cry to Me” has only appeared in a Springsteen set list once, way back in 1971, and that performance was not recorded. He did, however, play it at least two sound checks during the Born to Run Tour, and those performances survive thanks to the stealthy tapecraft of bootleggers.
“Cry to Me” was a hit for the great Solomon Burke (for whom Bruce has often expressed admiration) when he released it in 1962. Peaking at #5 on the R&B chart and #44 on the Hot 100, it became one of Burke’s best-known songs, a plaintive cry of loneliness and heartbreak that’s as irresistible to cover artists as it is to audiences.
Barely a year after Burke charted with “Cry to Me,” Betty Harris took it to #10 on the R&B chart and handily surpassed the original on the Hot 100, peaking at #23.
Two years after that, The Rolling Stones covered it as an album track on Out of Our Heads.
All of this was before Burke’s original achieved immortality when it was featured in a key scene in the 1987 film, Dirty Dancing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Ic4cXON3o&pp=ygUXZGlydHkgZGFuY2luZyBjcnkgdG8gbWU%3D
So when Bruce decided to work up an arrangement of “Cry to Me” for his 1975 sound checks, he had several great versions to draw inspiration from. As it turns out, he drew from all of the above.
In this first documented outing from July 1975, we hear a somewhat distant E Street Band slow burn their way through “Cry to Me” in a bluesy arrangement similar to The Stones, but slower and with more impassioned vocals like Harris delivers.
Five months later, before the famous C.W. Post College show that gave us our annual radio visit from “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” Bruce and the boys took another run through “Cry to Me,” in a much clearer recording and more assured and powerful performance.
Given the scarcity of documented soundchecks in that era, the five months in between its two known outings, and the considerably stronger and more confident second performance, it’s highly likely that “Cry to Me” was a regular soundcheck staple that year.
I can’t help but wonder why Bruce never gave it a proper concert outing, but knowing his admiration for Burke and fondness for the song, I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll see “Cry to Me” on that rumored Volume 2 in 2023.
Cry to Me
First performed: May 14, 1971 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: December 12, 1975 (Greenvale, NY) – soundcheck only
