Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run is one of the most iconic classic rock albums of all time. Featuring the singles “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and the hit title track, the album made the New Jersey-based rocker a household name in 1975 as it shared stories about working-class dreamers fantasizing about a better life.
More than 50 years later, another song from Born to Run is being recognized as one of the best on the album.
In October 2026, Ultimate Classic Rock ranked “Thunder Road,” the album’s first track, as the Top Album-Opening Song. The song was ranked No. 1 on a list that includes The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” (From Beggars Banquet, 1968); Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” (from Led Zeppelin II, 1969); and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (from Nevermind, 1991).
“The first song on an album not only sets the mood and pace but also plays a key role in determining whether a listener will stick around for the next 40 or so minutes,” UCR wrote. “’Thunder Road’ slowly sneaks in from the opened screen door Bruce Springsteen sings about in the first line of his legend-making LP. It lays out the theme of Born to Run: everyday losers looking for new starts. No song sets an album’s scene better.”
Written by Springsteen on a piano and recorded when he was just 24, “Thunder Road” features a harmonica intro, a piano interlude and a Clarence Clemens sax solo, with lyrics about escaping a dead-end life.
Springsteen knew once he wrote the song that it was destined to be an album-opener.
“‘Thunder Road’ was just so obviously an opening, due to its intro,” he once told Rolling Stone. “It just set the scene. There is something about the melody of ‘Thunder Road’ that just suggests a new day, it suggests morning, it suggests something opening up.”
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Nearly 50 years after he wrote “Thunder Road,” Springsteen appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and admitted that for decades, he’d been singing the opening line—“The screen door slams. Mary’s dress sways”— using an incorrect word.
“This record is almost 50 years old. Fifty years ago, I was a sociopath,” Springsteen told Fallon as he whipped out a copy of the album. “I was insane about every single detail that had anything to do with music, my album, my album cover, my lyrics. I went over everything with a fine-tooth comb so everything would be perfect and completely accurate. The lyrics to ‘Thunder Road’ are in this album. The correct lyrics.”
“‘The screen door slams,’” he confirmed. “I’ve been singing ‘sways’ for almost 50 years. ‘The screen door slams / Mary’s dress waves.’”
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