BRUCE’S BREAKTHROUGH REVISITED, THREE DECADES LATER

The album that put Bruce Springsteen on the covers of Time and Newsweek in 1975 is now a box set. Columbia’s Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition, coming Nov. 15, contains three discs: the remastered original album, the concert film Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 and the newly made documentary Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run—adding up to nearly four hours of previously unseen footage. The package also has a 48-page booklet of previously unpublished photographs.

"I believe that the combination of the great 1975 concert footage, the brilliant documentary of the making of the album and the dazzling remastering of Born to Run add up to a nearly perfect storm of Bruce's music," says manager Jon Landau, who co-produced the original album and supervised the box set along with Springsteen.

Among the 16 numbers on the Hammersmith DVD, shot on Nov. 18, 1975 and containing the entire concert, are "Thunder Road," "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," “She’s the One,” “Backstreets,” "Jungleland," "Born to Run," "Kitty's Back" and "Rosalita." Surprisingly, it’s the only full-length concert film ever released of Springsteen and the E Street Band's first 25 years. Bob Clearmountain remastered and remixed the DVD in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound. The film was edited by Thom Zimny, who performed the same task for the Emmy-winning Live in New York, the quadruple-platinum, Emmy-nominated Live in Barcelona and Bruce’s VH1 Storytellers performances.

The 90-minute documentary recounting the story of the album’s creation contains substantial footage of the album sessions, Springsteen’s memorable 1975 tour and solo piano and guitar versions of songs from the album, as well as newly filmed interviews with Bruce and present and former members of the E Street Band, as well as former manager Mike Appel, with whom Bruce had a protracted legal battle. The film culminates with performances of three songs recorded live at L.A.’s Ahmanson Theater in 1973: "Spirit In The Night," "Wild Billy's Circus Story" and "Thundercrack."

The album was remastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig, marking the first time Springsteen has allowed any of his catalog to be fully remastered.

Born to Run, originally released on Aug. 25, 1975, has sold nearly 9 million albums worldwide.