When I was a little kid in the early '80s, my sister and I would get frustrated when our dad would -- gawd! -- confuse Rick Springfield with some dude named Bruce Springsteen. That didn't last very long.
Springsteen's 1982 album "Nebraska" may have been a hit with critics (and my dad) but when "Born in the USA" was released on June 4, 1984, Bruce became a bona fide pop star who could even get primary school kids singing about their glory days.
"Born in the USA" produced seven Top 10 hits -- including "Dancing in the Dark," which boasted a teenage Courtney Cox being pulled up on stage in the music video -- a feat only surpassed by Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Janet Jackson's "Ryhthm Nation."
The album went on to sell 30 million copies and remains best known for the title track, a searing indictment of America's treatment of its Vietnam veterans which was adopted unironically by Ronald Reagan's reelection campaign.
That song was also, interestingly, originally written for a Paul Schrader film about a bar band then-called "Born in the USA" in which Springsteen was offered a starring role.
After turning it down, the role went to Michael J Fox and the film's name changed to "Light of Day." Bruce kept "Born" for himself -- after all, it had already been in the works under the name "Vietnam" -- and instead handed in "(Just Around The Corner To The) Light Of Day," which was performed by the movie's other co-star Joan Jett.
That film is now an '80s trivia question, but 30 years after "Born in the USA" was released, Bruce remains The Boss.