"Radio Nowhere" is the first single released from

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

's 2007 studio album ''

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

''. It was awarded

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing qua ...

and

Best Rock Song The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre. Honors in several ...

at the

Grammy Awards of 2008 The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonies ...

History

The song is an up-tempo,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

-driven,

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

er that features

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...

members

Max Weinberg Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' a ...

on drums,

Garry Tallent Garry Wayne Tallent (born October 27, 1949), sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being bass player and founding member of the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band si ...

on bass guitar,

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for The E Street Band. Clemons released several s ...

on saxophone,

Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin ...

, Clemons and

Patti Scialfa Vivienne Patricia Scialfa ( ; born July 29, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Scialfa has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and has been married to Bruce Springsteen since 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into ...

on background vocals, and

Nils Lofgren Nils Hilmer Lofgren (born June 21, 1951) is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a membe ...

on a guitar part underneath Clemons's sax solo. "Radio Nowhere" was made available as a free, limited-timespan download "exclusively" from the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

starting on August 28, 2007 (although it was also available from Guardian Unlimited). The site also offered a pre-order of the new album.

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

created a site, www.radionowheredownload.com, which offered the single for free for Springsteen's fan base in Europe in advance of the commercial release of the album. Despite heavy promotion, the song was not a chart success in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It failed to enter the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, although it reached number 2 on the Triple-A chart. The song performed significantly better in European countries, proving most successful in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

where it peaked at number 2 in both countries. "Radio Nowhere" was included on Springsteen's 2009 ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

'' compilation.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Radio Nowhere", directed by Thom Zimny, was released on

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

on September 4, 2007. It consists mostly of Springsteen and the E Street Band playing the song in a darkened studio, interspersed with filmed

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

street scenes and a few shots of a recent promotional photograph of Springsteen being torn.

Live performance history

"Radio Nowhere" was the set opener for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 Magic Tour during the first leg. It subsequently shifted to being the second song played, with various other choices ahead of it, but overall it was performed in every show of that tour but one. On the 2009

Working on a Dream Tour The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009. It followed the late January 2009 release of the album ''Working on a Dream''. This was the first ful ...

, "Radio Nowhere" was the only song from ''Magic'' that was regularly performed. Its position on the setlist was often moved around to match the segment of the concert where 18-year-old

Jay Weinberg Jay Weinberg is an American musician and the current drummer for the heavy metal band Slipknot. He is the son of drummer Max Weinberg. He has played with the punk rock band the Reveling and toured in 2009 as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen' ...

substituted for his father on drums.

Tommy Tutone controversy

"Radio Nowhere" features a set of guitar riffs and chord progression at the beginning that many fans considered particularly similar to "

867-5309/Jenny "867-5309/Jenny" is a 1981 song written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone that was released on the album ''Tommy Tutone 2'', on the Columbia Records label. It peaked at No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in May 1 ...

", written by

Alex Call Alex M. Call (born September 27, 1994) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022 with the Cleveland Guardians. Amateur career Born in Burnsville, M ...

and Jim Keller, lead guitarist for

Tommy Tutone Tommy Tutone is an American power pop band, known for its 1981 hit "867-5309/Jenny", which peaked at #4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Though some people consider the band to be a one-hit wonder, it did reach the Top 40 the year before with "An ...

, although the lyrics and the tone of the two songs are quite different. Tommy Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath was quoted as saying: "Everybody's calling me about it," Mark Caro
"Tommy 'Tutone' Heath speaks!"
''

The Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', August 31, 2007. Accessed September 1, 2007. and that, "I think it's close enough that if I wanted to ake legal action I could work with it." Heath later clarified that he did not intend to take action and that he felt "really honored at a similarity, if any". Both songs were released on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2007 singles Bruce Springsteen songs Songs written by Bruce Springsteen Song recordings produced by Brendan O'Brien (record producer) Columbia Records singles Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance Grammy Award for Best Rock Song 2007 songs Songs about radio