Nightshift (cover) by Bruce Springsteen

You’ve gotta hand it to The Boss. When he does a cover, he makes the song his very own.

Bruce Springsteen sings Nightshift as part of his 2022 album, Only the Strong Survive.

It’s a song first sung by The Commodores in an album released 40 years ago of the same name to remember soul singers Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, who died in their 40s, Marvin tragically shot by his dad.

The Commodores succeeded in making something rare and beautiful — an elegy that’s sad yet uplifting, strangely comforting even. Written by Walter Orange, Dennis Lambert and Franne Golde, it imagines Marvin and Jackie “singin’ proud”, knowing they’ll “pull a crowd”, and that “it’s gonna be alright on the night shift/ You found another home”.

Small wonder that Nightshift was their first big hit after Lionel Richie left the band.

Yet there’s a different kind of magic when Bruce Springsteen, America’s iconic balladeer for the working classes for almost 60 years now, sings the opener:

Marvin

He was a friend of mine

And he could sing a song

His heart in every line...

Springsteen is 75 now, and this is a gruff, mellow yet incredibly moving rendition. The percussion, strings and horns set the stage, but his voice, as always, is the hero. The celestial “nightshift” hits different when sung by the legend who has seen so much of life, so many of his friends passing on.

Only the Strong Survive was recorded amid the gloom and uncertainty of the Covid-19 lockdown, when people were dying across the world. It gives Springsteen’s Nightshift its added gravitas when he says “it’s gonna be alright”.

For many, Springsteen is about the songs he wrote about youthful dreams of breaking free, yearning for a better life — with searing poetry like “the highway’s jammed with broken heroes”.

Born to Run, Thunder Road, Born in the USA, Dancing in the Dark, Atlantic City, just to name a few, never get old.

Springsteen has written about chasing the Great American Dream, what happens when the dream sours and how to pick up the pieces and run again — or switch lanes. With the trusty E Street Band, his frequent collaborator, he’s made his songs a slice of Americana beyond the stereotypes.

He’s also been unapologetically political, fiercely critical of the Donald Trump administration. In a June 2025 interview to The New York Times, he said: “It’s an American tragedy. I think it was the deindustrialisation of our country and then the incredible increase in wealth disparity that left so many people behind. It was ripe for a demagogue.”

And then he goes for the jugular: “And while I can’t believe it was this moron that came along, he fit the bill for some people.”

The loathing is certainly mutual. Trump has called Springsteen a “dried out prune of a rocker” and a “pushy, obnoxious jerk” who “ought to keep his mouth shut”.

You’ve tuned in to The Boss for many seasons and many reasons. To discover another Bruce, you can start your week with Nightshift. See where it leads you.