The Essential Bruce Springsteen is a compilation album by Bruce Springsteen, released on November 11, 2003. The collection is part of a series of Essential sets released by Sony Music. It includes songs from various Springsteen albums and concerts up to the year 2003. A limited-edition third disc includes previously unreleased cuts, B-sides, contributions to soundtracks and benefit albums, covers, and an alternate, "country-blues" acoustic version of "Countin' on a Miracle" from The Rising (2002).

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart on November 29, 2003, at No. 14, with sales of 90,000 copies. The album was awarded gold and platinum records on December 16, 2003, by the RIAA. As of August 2013, the album has sold over 1,079,000 copies in the United States. It reached No. 15 on the UK Albums Chart in 2013. The album was re-released with an updated track listing in October 2015.

Critical reception

The album received general acclaim from music critics, who appreciated its inclusion of Springsteen's most recognizable hits throughout his career. AllMusic calls it a better compilation album than 1995's "misguided, haphazardly selected" Greatest Hits. In a Uncut magazine review, writer Chris Roberts writes that, while it does try to represent each of Springsteen's albums up until the release of the compilation, it does " too much communal air-punching, too little gentle introspection. Too much c'mon everybody, not enough leave me alone everybody.", noting that "this [compilation] obviously contains many absolutely storming songs, while begging you to question the omissions.", although he does believe it would have been "braver" to include one of the songs from his second album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, highlighting "Candy's Room" and "Secret Garden" as options, Roberts concludes his review by noting that "The wordy babbling beatnik became The Boss then became understandably cautious, but when he loses himself and lets rip, to this day, thunder and lightning back off warily. Looking again at the track listing, this is a crazily great thing."

Track listing

The Essential Bruce Springsteen track listing

1. 2003 bonus disc edition – disc three

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

• Album contents

• Album credits