Bruce Springsteen Announces ‘Only The Stong Survive’ Soul Covers Set

Coming on November 11th is Bruce Springsteen's soul covers set, titled Only The Strong Survive. “The Boss” released the video for the album's first single, “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” a 1965 single by Frank Wilson on the Motown subsidiary, Soul Records. The album, which was recorded without the E Street Band, features two duets with Sam & Dave's Sam Moore — “Soul Days” and “I Forgot To Be Your Lover.”

Among the other covers on the set are the Walker Brothers' “The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore,” Jimmy Ruffin's “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted,” Jerry Butler's “Hey, Western Union Man,” the Temptations' “I Wish It Would Rain,” the Four Tops' “7 Rooms Of Gloom,” the Supremes' “Someday We'll Be Together” — and even the Commodores' 1985 hit “Nightshift.”

In the video announcement for the set, Springsteen explained, “I decided to do something I had never done before: make some music that is centered around singing, around challenging my voice. Now, in my own memoir, I give my voice a little short shrift by saying I didn't think I had much of one. But once I started on this project, after listening to some of the things we cut, I thought, 'My voice is badass!'”

Bruce Springsteen recalled that where he, Southside Johnny Lyons, Steve Van Zandt, and the E Street Band originally came from played a huge part in the type of music he wrote and performed: “If you grew up an hour outside of New York, like we did along the Jersey Shore — I mean, most of the people in my town had never been to New York City. And there was no one who came along the Jersey Shore to find talent, or songwriters, or bands. It just didn't happen then — this is the late-'60s and early-'70s. You were left in a bit of your own wilderness, y'know? But you had a very specific group of influences and a specific sound. So, what it was bars, y'know, it was bars, cars, girls — it was the things that I ended up writing about.”

The tracklisting to Bruce Springsteen's 'Only The Strong Survive':

“Only The Strong Survive”
“Soul Days” – with Sam Moore
“Nightshift”
“Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)”
“The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore”
“Turn Back The Hands Of Time”
“When She Was My Girl”
“Hey, Western Union Man”
“I Wish It Would Rain”
“Don't Play That Song”
“Any Other Way”
“I Forgot To Be Your Lover” – with Sam Moore
“7 Rooms Of Gloom”
“What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted”
“Someday We'll Be Together”