Sixties soul veteran Gary U.S. Bonds had a second career in the early ’80s after Bruce Springsteen wrote and produced two albums for him.

I suspect I bought this single back in 1981 because it was written and produced by Bruce Springsteen, and played by the E Street Band, fresh from releasing The River.

I had no idea Gary U.S. Bonds had been a big star two decades earlier – nor that the Boss had single-handedly revived his career.

Listening now, it’s easy to imagine this song sitting on a Springsteen album: it’s one of a batch of ten he wrote and gave to Bonds – had he recorded them himself, they would have constituted the follow-up to The River.

In giving them to Bonds, Bruce single-handedly revived the career of a singer who had disappeared into obscurity after touring Europe in 1963 – headlining above a British band called The Beatles.

Eighteen years later, Springsteen co-produced two albums for him with Little Steven and lent him the E Street Band to play the ten songs he’d written for Bonds’ two comeback albums – Dedication and On The Line – and a batch of others.

When I first heard this it was the first time I’d heard of Gary U.S. Bonds – born Gary Anderson back in 1939 – and I had no idea he’d had a million-selling single called Quarter To Three and another big hit called New Orleans back in 1960.