Columbia 41355
Producer: Brendan O’Brien
Track listing: Outlaw Pete / My Lucky Day / Working on a Dream / Queen of the Supermarket / What Love Can Do / This Life / Good Eye / Tomorrow Never Knows / Life Itself / Kingdom of Days / Surprise, Surprise / The Last Carnival / The Wrestler
February 14, 2009
1 week
It took the Boss — with a couple of historic TV appearances — to end Taylor Swift’s eight-week run at the top. Released on the heels of his high-profile appearances at the “We Are One” concert in honor of President Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 18 and his half time performance with the E Street Band at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, Bruce Springsteen’s Working on a Dream sold 224,000 copies in its first week. It gave
Springsteen his ninth Number One album and dethroned Swift’s Fearless from the summit.
The feat put Springsteen in a third-place tie with the Rolling Stones for the most chart-toppers, behind only the Beatles (with 19) and Elvis Presley and Jay-Z (with 10 each). Although the first-week tally of Working on a Dream marked a 33 percent drop from Springsteen’s last chart-topper, 2007’s Magic, it still had to be considered a triumph of sorts, given the general downturn of the American economy and the music business at the
time of its release.
On an artistic level, Springsteen felt — and some critics agreed — Dream topped a trilogy of releases that marked a creative resurgence for the veteran rocker and his trusted E Street Band. “I’ll put The Rising, Magic and the new one against any other three records we’ve made in a row, as far as sound, depth and purpose, of what they’re saying and conveying,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone‘s David Fricke. “It’s very satisfying to be able
to do that at this point in the road.”
Recorded on days off from the band’s 2007-2008 tour, Working on a Dream had its upbeat moments, celebrating the hope of Obama after the dire Bush years. Yet the album was also bittersweet. Dream marked what were likely the final recordings featuring E Street keyboardist Danny Federici, who died on April 17, 2008 from melanoma. In the somber, album-closing “The Last Carnival,” Springsteen pays tribute to Federici by singing, “We’ll be riding the train without you tonight/The train that keeps on moving.”
“The Wrestler,” which was tacked onto the album as a bonus track, was the theme song for the Mickey Rourke-comeback vehicle of the same name. The song won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, but was surprisingly absent from the Oscar nominations.
The snub likely didn’t hurt Springsteen too much. A few weeks later, with Working on a Dream perched atop the album chart, he was awarded a Grammy for Best Rock Song for “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” from Magic. It was an honor Springsteen claimed he didn’t even know he was nominated for until he opened the paper the following morning.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of February 14, 2009
1.Working on a Dream, Bruce Springsteen
2. Fearless, Taylor Swift
3. I Am…Sasha Fierce, Beyonce
4. Dark Horse, Nickelback
5. 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West