Glory Days (3:47)

Cover of Greatest Hits

From Greatest Hits and 44 other releases

“Glory Days” is a 1984 song, written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. In 1985 it became the fifth single released from his massively successful album Born in the U.S.A.

“Glory Days” was recorded in April or May 1982 (sources differ) during the first wave of Born in the U.S.A. sessions. Even though the album went through several different phases of what would be on it, “Glory Days” was always seen as one of the cornerstones. The song is a seriocomic tale of a man who now ruefully looks back on the so-called glory days of himself and people he knew during high school. The music is jocular, consisting of what Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh called “rinky-dink organ, honky-tonk piano, and garage-band guitar kicked along by an explosive tom-tom pattern.” It also features a mandolin solo from Steven Van Zandt, one of the sideman’s most noticeable instrumental contributions to the Springsteen studio canon.

An alternate mix of “Glory Days” has circulated, which includes a deleted third verse between the second and the last. The missing verse refers to the singer’s father sitting on a bar stool at the legion, bitter over his lack of any “glory days.”

The single peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts in the summer of 1985. It was the fifth of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A. Marsh named the second volume in his biography after the song.

The music video for the song was shot in late May 1985 in various locations in New Jersey, and was directed by filmmaker John Sayles, the third video he had done for the album.

Tags

Everyone’s tags

Preview this track (0:30)

Play
Position: 00:00
More about this track…

Albums featuring this track (45)

Similar Tracks

  Track   Duration Listeners
Bruce Springsteen - My Hometown 4:08 157,328
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark 4:02 376,160
Bryan Adams - Summer of '69 3:33 431,291
  Dire Straits - Walk of Life 4:08 519,139
Tom Petty - Free Fallin' 4:19 307,514
Tom Petty - I Won't Back Down 2:56 166,977

Listening Trend

247,141listeners all time
985,753scrobbles all time
Recent listeners trend:

Explore more

Listen to, buy or share

Buy

Send ‘Glory Days’ Ringtone to Cell

I had a friend was a big baseball player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy

MetroLyrics Full lyrics at MetroLyrics

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up.

Listening Now

Top Listeners