BY THE NUMBERS: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’
After the release of Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen had the daunting task of writing a follow-up, but how do you really follow an album that lands you on the…
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 06: Bruce Springsteen performs at the 7th annual “Stand Up For Heroes” event at Madison Square Garden on November 6, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty ImagesAfter the release of Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen had the daunting task of writing a follow-up, but how do you really follow an album that lands you on the cover of Time and Newsweek in the same week?
For Springsteen, you double-down on gritty, working-class stories and produce Darkness on the Edge of Town. While the album wasn’t the massive commercial success of its predecessor, it still went on to sell millions of copies and prove The Boss was no fluke and was here to stay.
In honor of its 40th anniversary, here are some notable statistics about Darkness on the Edge of Town.
- Copies sold in the U.S.:3 million
- Number of tracks on the album: 10
- “Badlands”
- “Adam Raised a Cain”
- “Something in the Night”
- “Candy’s Room”
- “Racing in the Streets”
- “The Promised Land”
- “Factory”
- “Streets of Fire”
- “Prove It All Night”
- “Darkness of the Edge of Town”
- Highest position on Billboard 200: 5
- Number of weeks on the Billboard 200: 97
- Number of tracks that appeared on Billboard Hot 100: 2
- "Prove It All Night" (Peaked at #33)
- "Badlands"(Peaked at #42)
- Ranking on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 150
Erica Banas is a rock/classic rock blogger that loves the smell of old vinyl in the morning.
