Decades later, when Springsteen had established his own musical career, he tried to collaborate with the icon who inspired him to pick up his instrument in the first place. Sadly, the Boss ended up being a day late and a dollar short. (Americansongwriter)
“It wasn’t just the way Elvis looked,” Springsteen later said, “It was the way he moved that made people crazy, p***ed off, driven to screaming ecstasy and profane revulsion. That was [the power of] television. I had to get a guitar the next day. I stood in front of the mirror with that guitar on, and I knew that that was what had been missing. But then I crawled back into the grave or something until I was thirteen.”
By the end of the 1970s, Bruce Springsteen was a rock star in his own right. With albums like Born to Run and Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., under his belt, Springsteen began writing songs for a new album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. Springsteen didn’t want to chase after hits. He wanted to write raw, authentic rock ‘n’ roll music, even if that meant he wouldn’t be the one cutting the actual record. One such song that came about during these Darkness sessions was a track called “Fire.”
Springsteen wrote “Fire” with Elvis Presley in mind, even sending the King of Rock and Roll a demo of it in the hopes that he would cut the record. Sadly, Elvis died before it arrived. “Then, I decided to give the song to Robert Gordon because his voice is a little like Elvis,’” Springsteen recalled. “When I hear him, I kinda get the impression that Elvis is singing it.” (Video above)
In the end, the most successful version of “Fire” would come from the Pointer Sisters, who released their rendition of Springsteen’s song on their 1978 album Energy. The song peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, besting its songwriter’s top single “Born to Run” by 21 spots.
