Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” wasn’t just a chart-topping album. It was a phenomenon felt all the way up in the highest office in the land.
Released 35 years ago in June, the album — which has sold more than 30 million copies — made the Boss a true celebrity in the months after its release. So much so that both President Ronald Reagan and Democratic opponent Walter Mondale clumsily courted the musician’s endorsement during the 1984 election campaign, only to be rebuffed.
Here are four more surprising stories about the album that helped make Springsteen a household name.
It was almost an acoustic flop
Recording started off well, as the E Street Band laid down the first side of the album quickly in the spring of 1982. But Springsteen also wanted to include some acoustic, pared-down songs in the vein of the scratchy solo demos he’d made while writing for the record.
He was unsatisfied with the results, and things stalled as he went into the studio. So he changed course, releasing the original demos as the album “Nebraska” and putting “Born in the USA” on hold.
In his book “It Ain’t No Sin To Be Glad You’re Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen,” Eric Alterman writes that then-CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff was not happy with “Nebraska,” telling Springsteen it sounded like it was “made in your garage.”
Despite some rave reviews, it wasn’t picked up by radio and barely sold — a situation made worse by the musician’s decision not to tour.
When the E Street Band finally reconvened in 1983 to finish “Born in the USA,” Springsteen was under pressure from all sides to deliver something bigger and better.
The tour almost broke Bruce
During the 1985 “Born in the USA” tour, Springsteen was newly married to actress Julianne Phillips, and the couple was the subject of intense attention. Enraged after seeing a photo of his hotel bed in a Scandinavian newspaper, a fuming Boss threw a guitar across his dressing room, narrowly missing manager Jon Landau’s head.
When Springsteen went onstage at Sweden’s Ullevi stadium, the 75,000 fans seemed to feed off his rage — so much so, they caused some $4 million in damages.
Toby Scott, Springsteen’s sound engineer for 40 years, tells The Post the stadium “moved 4 feet from people dancing so hard!”
The Boss ran off Little Steven
Of all his band members, Springsteen was closest to guitarist Steve “Little Steven” Van Zandt. The two had played together since the late 1960s, and Van Zandt joined the E Street Band during the “Born To Run” tour of 1975.
Over the years, he became Springsteen’s co-producer, confidant and onstage foil. But he also felt he should have more of a say in the songs, and Springsteen wasn’t having it.
In 1983, as the band was midway through recording “Born in the USA,” Van Zandt quit. Everyone was devastated.
“Steve is a one-of-a-kind pal for all of us,” drummer Max Weinberg tells The Post. “His leaving was jarring.”
As a token of conciliation, Springsteen penned the track “Bobby Jean” for Van Zandt, who didn’t rejoin the group for good until 1999.
‘Dancing in the Dark’ was inspired by Michael Jackson
Even though Springsteen amassed about 70 songs during the “Born in the USA” sessions, manager Landau still felt the album was missing a surefire hit.
“We argued, gently, and I suggested that if he felt we needed something else, he write it,” Springsteen wrote in his autobiography. “That evening I wrote ‘Dancing in the Dark,’ my song about my own alienation.”
That beat, however, had a surprising influence: “I remember Jon … suggesting that I simplify the drum part,” says Weinberg, who is currently on tour as Max Weinberg’s Jukebox. “[Landau] referenced Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It.’ ”
Landau enlisted “Scarface” director Brian De Palma to shoot a music video before a concert in St. Paul, Minn., in June 1984. Bruce fans were in for a shock: The scraggly beach rat was gone, and in his place stood a chiseled rock god dancing with a pre-fame Courteney Cox.