"Open All Night" is a song written and recorded by rock musician Bruce Springsteen, which first appeared on Springsteen's 1982 solo album ''

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''.

History

Of the 10 songs on ''Nebraska'', "Open All Night" is the only one to feature an

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. With a

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

-style guitar riff, the song tells the story of an unnamed narrator's all-night drive across industrial

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

to reach his girl, Wanda, whom he met when she was a waitress at the Route 60

Bob's Big Boy Bob's Big Boy is a restaurant chain founded by Bob Wian in Southern California in 1936, originally named Bob's Pantry. It is now part of Big Boy Restaurant Group, the current primary trademark owner and franchisor of the Big Boy system. At its ...

. "Open All Night" was released as a single in the UK, backed by "The Big Payback", but did not chart. It was also released as a single in

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and

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. Though never released as a single in the United States, it garnered enough

album oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orient ...

airplay to reach #22 on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Springsteen performed this song infrequently until the Sessions Band Tour of 2006, when it was transformed into an eight-minute "show-stopping rave-up" whose already surreal lyrics were made more strange by being rapped against a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

swing arrangement and a pseudo- Andrews Sisters female backing vocal trio. This is the version that appears on the '' Live in Dublin'' CD and DVD.

Jay Farrar Jay Farrar (born December 26, 1966) is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis. A member of two critically acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond his estab ...

Son Volt Son Volt is an American rock band formed in 1994 by Jay Farrar after the breakup of Uncle Tupelo. The band's current line-up consists of Farrar (vocals, guitar), Andrew DuPlantis (bass guitar), John Horton (guitar), Mark Patterson (drums), and Ma ...

recorded a version which was released in 2005 on '' A Retrospective: 1995–2000''. In November 2014 Pearl Jam covered the song in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Personnel

According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon: * Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitar

References

{{Authority control 1982 singles Bruce Springsteen songs Songs written by Bruce Springsteen Columbia Records singles 1982 songs Song recordings produced by Bruce Springsteen