“Hungry Heart” was Bruce Springsteen’s first top-10 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. A long-overdue feat, because singles such as Born to Run, Thunder Road, Blinded by the Light, and Badlands certainly deserved more commercial recognition.
“Hungry Heart” appears on Springsteen’s fifth album The River (1980) and was released as the record’s lead single. But what’s the story behind the song? And what’s the meaning of “Hungry Heart”? Let’s find out!
The Story Behind the Song
After releasing the raw recession-inspired album Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), Bruce Springsteen desired to release an album with a wider range of emotions. After all, his live shows were filled with energy and amusement, which were few and far between in the studio.
It became the idealogy with which Springsteen’s fifth studio album, The River (1980), was written. An album that indeed addressed a wider range of emotions. Think of the emotional ballads “The River” and “Stolen Car,” or the energetic “Cadillac Ranch” and “Ramrod”.
Furthermore, the album contained catchy upbeat pop-rock hits. With the hit-potential highlight being “Hungry Heart.”
Bruce Springsteen initially wrote “Hungry Heart” for another band, as he explained in the liner notes of his Greatest Hits album: “I met the Ramones in Asbury Park and Joey asked me to write a song for ’em. I went home and that night I wrote this (Hungry Heart).”
But when producer Jon Landau heard the song, he urged Springsteen to keep the song for himself. “I played it for Jon Landau and, earning his money, he advised me to keep it.”
Jon Landau’s advice turned out to be correct, because Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” became a huge hit. The song was released as The River’s first single and reached the fifth spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. A milestone in Springsteen’s career, for he never had a top-10 hit before.
The Meaning of Hungry Heart
“Hungry Heart”, just like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run”, is a song about running away and breaking free. In the song, the narrator leaves his wife and children due to an unexplainable calling. He has a ‘hungry heart’ and yearns for something better. He justifies his unethical decisions by explaining that he’s searching for a place – or person – that fulfills his ‘hungry heart’ and makes him feel at home.
The inspiration for the song’s title came from a line in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem titled Ulysses: “For always roaming with a hungry heart”.
The Song’s Legacy
The song wasn’t only quintessential as a chart performer, but also as a live song. It even transformed Springsteen’s audience.
In Springsteen’s autobiography Born to Run, he wrote: “Hungry Heart’ went top ten, doubled our album sales and brought to our live shows … women. Thank you, Jesus! Up ’til now, I’d had a hard-core following of young men who made up a high percentage of our live audience, but “Hungry Heart” brought in the girls and proved Top 40 radio’s power to transform your audience.”
A transformed audience that acquired a special role in live performances of “Hungry Heart”. During the The River Tour, the E-street band decided to open the song instrumentally. The audience picked it up as a signal to sing along with the tune. It became a tradition, which is honored to this day.
Springsteen also allowed the song to be used in movies, something he hadn’t done before. It, for instance, appears in Tom Cruise’s Risky Business and Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer.
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