Which musicians influenced the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s early albums?

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Bruce Springsteen plays an acoustic guitar and sings into a microphone on stage at the New York Film Festival Spotlight Gala. — Bruce Springsteen American rock musician Bruce Springsteen performs at the New York Film Festival Spotlight Gala at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, 2025. The gala featured a screening of *Deliver Me from Nowhere* (2025), a biopic centering on the making of Springsteen's 1982 album *Nebraska*.

The sound of Bruce Springsteen’s first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (both released in 1973), was heavily influenced by folk rock, soul, and rhythm-and-blues. Specifically, these early works reflect the musical styles of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and the artists associated with Stax/Volt Records.1

With his third album, Born to Run (1975), Springsteen’s sound shifted toward a full-fledged rock-and-roll style that was heavily indebted to the influence of Phil Spector and Roy Orbison.2