Wears non-descript work clothes while performing on stage.

Film noir: Many of his songs are influenced by films, particularly 1940s and 1950s film noir.

Often plays the Fender Esquire on stage

Often writes songs about his youth in New Jersey

Distinctive, raspy vocals

Songs about average people in the everyday struggle

Children, with Patti Scialfa: Evan Springsteen, Jesse Springsteen and Sam Springsteen.

Says his favorite film as a kid was The Searchers (1956).

1999: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Bono of U2 gave the induction speech. When U2 was inducted in 2005, Springsteen gave their induction speech, returning the favor.

1997: Awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award.

10/27/75: He appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines simultaneously. Previously this only happened to world leaders.

Considered becoming a baseball player prior to devoting himself to music.

Many of his earlier songs make reference to the New Jersey shore, where he spent his youth.

Paul Schrader asked Springsteen to write a title song for a movie he had written called "Born in the USA". After Springsteen wrote it, he liked the song so much, he used it for his multi-platinum album of the same name instead. As a replacement, Springsteen wrote another song and that song title became the film's new title, Light of Day (1987). That is why Springsteen thanks Schrader in the liner notes of the album.

Father, Douglas "Dutch" Springsteen, died in 1998. Mother's name is Adele. Has two sisters, Virginia and Pamela Springsteen.

Frequently works with director John Sayles, a fellow Jerseyite who shares a similar social conscience.

His song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was inspired by the John Ford film The Grapes of Wrath (1940).

For all his musical success, he has never recorded a #1 hit. "Hungry Heart" (believed to be a #1 by some) only hit #5. The closest he came was #2, with "Dancing In The Dark". He did, however, write "Blinded By The Light", which hit #1 when recorded by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

He refused to play "The Angry Game" with Kristian Luuk when he appeared on "Sen kväll med Luuk" (1996), a Swedish talk-show. The game is a staring contest, during which the contestants are not allowed to laugh.

Originally wrote his classic single "Hungry Heart" for Ramones, but recorded himself at the insistence of his manager.

His Oscar-winning song "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia (1993) was ranked #68 on The American Film Institute's list of "The 100 Years of The Greatest Songs".

1993: Made an unannounced guest appearance on the very last episode of "Late Night with David Letterman" (1982) and sang "Glory Days".

Fall of 2004: He participated in the Vote for Change concert tour organized to encourage the defeat of George W. Bush in the U.S. presidential election, an effort that ultimately fell short as Bush was re-elected on November 2, 2004.

Father was of Dutch and Irish extraction; mother is of Italian extraction.

2004; Radio station 88.5 WXPN performed the 885 greatest songs ever, though they mostly just did rock (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wasn't on the list) and Springsteen won first place with "Thunder Road", "Born to Run" following at #6 and then many other songs scattered throughout.

He was voted the 23rd Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.

One of his most famous songs, "Thunder Road", was inspired by the Robert Mitchum movie of the same name, Thunder Road (1958). Cappy Van Dien has the same birthday as Springsteen and is named after his great-grandfather Robert Mitchum and his father Casper Van Dien - Casper Robert Mitchum Van Dien.

His concerts are known as marathons for lasting multiple hours.

Was occasionally confused with Bob Seger in the 1970s and 1980s. They have similar singing voices and both utilize saxophone players in their music.

Born on the same day as the late soul singer Ray Charles and actor Jason Alexander.

Sean Penn wrote and directed his first movie, The Indian Runner (1991), loosely based on Springsteen's song, "Highway Patrolman", from his "Nebraska" album from 1980, which was practically a demo tape made in Springsteen's house.

Made two guest appearances on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993). O'Brien's drummer, Max Weinberg, was the drummer with the E Street Band.

1986: Winner of the British Phonographic Industry Award for International Solo Artist.

Is real-life good friends with Tom Hanks.

Elected to the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2007 for his services to music and entertainment (inaugural election). Official induction ceremonies held in May 2008.

Ranked #27 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll.

Ranked #59 on VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists.

The title for the film Streets of Fire (1984) came from the song written and recorded by Springsteen on his album "Darkness On The Edge Of Town". Original plans were for the song to be featured on the film's soundtrack, but when Springsteen found out it would be rerecorded by other vocalists, he withdrew permission for the song to be used.

Big fan of Elvis Presley.

1999: Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He inspired and is referred to in the Prefab Sprout song "Cars and Girls" (from their 1988 album "From Langley Park to Memphis").

Good friends with former WWE / AWA superstar Jim Brunzell.

His music was a partial influence on the new direction The Killers chose to take when writing and producing songs for their sophomore album "Sam's Town".