In 1976, Bruce Springsteen scaled the gate that surrounded the home of one of the New Jersey rock ‘n’ roller’s greatest musical heroes. Like everyone else who attempted this stunt, Springsteen was escorted off the property with little fanfare and no superstar sightings to boast. By 1984, Springsteen was enjoying the success of a Top 40 hit that not-so-subtly referenced that superstar he was so desperate to meet eight years earlier.
Though if we were to get technical, Springsteen was referencing his car.
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Bruce Springsteen Lifted This Elvis Presley Line for a 1984 B-Side
Bruce Springsteen released “Pink Cadillac” as the B-side to “Dancing In The Dark” in early May 1984. The backside single wasn’t Springsteen’s most successful. But it still performed well, peaking in the Top 40 at No. 27. The modest ranking of “Pink Cadillac” was likely due in part to the tidal wave caused by the album Springsteen put out one month later, Born In The U.S.A. “Pink Cadillac” wasn’t on the album, although the A-side was. Tracks like “Born In The U.S.A.” and “Glory Days” proved to be the most popular.
The titular vehicle Springsteen is referring to in his song is, of course, a reference to Elvis Presley’s iconic baby pink Cadillac. Presley, too, referenced this distinct car in his 1955 version of “Baby Let’s Play House”. In Arthur Gunter’s original version of the song, he sings, “You may get religion.” In Presley’s version, he ad-libbed, “You may have a pink Cadillac.”
That Springsteen would reference something as ubiquitous as Presley’s pink Cadillac isn’t all that surprising, given the significant influence the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll had over the Boss. However, the anecdote is an interesting look into just how much changed for Springsteen in a matter of eight years.
The Boss Tried to Meet the King Nearly a Decade Earlier
Eight years before Bruce Springsteen released “Pink Cadillac”, he was playing in Memphis with the E Street Band for the first time. His star was quickly rising, although he wasn’t quite a household name yet. This is probably why when he decided to hop the gate at Graceland, Elvis’ iconic Memphis estate, the security guards weren’t interested in what Springsteen had to say.
According to the Boss’ own retellings, he and Steven Van Zandt were driving around Memphis after their show when they pulled up in front of Graceland. Springsteen noticed an upstairs window had a light shining through it, and the musician wondered if that might be Elvis. He told Van Zandt that he wanted to check it out and took off over the gate and up the driveway.
“I got to the front door, and I was just about to knock, and guards came out of the woods, and they asked me what I wanted,” Springsteen recalled during a concert in 1985. “I said, ‘Is Elvis home?’ They said, ‘No, Elvis isn’t home. He’s in Lake Tahoe.’ So, I started to tell ‘em that I was a guitar player and that I had my own band, and that we played in town that night, and that I made some records. And I even told ‘em I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek. I had to pull out all the stops to try to make an impression, you know. I don’t think he believed me, though, ‘cause he just kinda stood there nodding. Then he took me by the arm and put me back out on the street.”
Had Elvis still been alive ten years later, the Boss probably could have received a direct invitation to Graceland.
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