"Radio Nowhere" is the first single released from

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

's 2007 studio album '' Magic''. It was awarded Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the Grammy Awards of 2008.

History

The song is an up-tempo,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

-driven,

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...

er that features

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the bulk of Springsteen's recordin ...

members

Max Weinberg Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' an ...

on drums,

Garry Tallent Garry Wayne Tallent (born October 27, 1949), sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the bass player and a founding member of the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen's primary backing ...

on bass guitar,

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American saxophonist. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Clemons rel ...

on saxophone,

Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He has appeared i ...

, Clemons and

Patti Scialfa Vivienne Patricia Scialfa ( ; born July 29, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Scialfa has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and has been married to Bruce Springsteen since 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into t ...

on background vocals, and

Nils Lofgren Nils Hilmer Lofgren (born June 21, 1951) is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a memb ...

on a guitar part underneath Clemons's sax solo. "Radio Nowhere" was made available as a free, limited-timespan download "exclusively" from the iTunes Store starting on August 28, 2007 (although it was also available from Guardian Unlimited). The site also offered a pre-order of the new album.

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

created a site, www.radionowheredownload.com, which offered the single for free for Springsteen's fan base in Europe in advance of the commercial release of the album. Despite heavy promotion, the song was not a chart success in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It failed to enter the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, although it reached number 2 on the Triple-A chart. The song performed significantly better in European countries, proving most successful in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

where it peaked at number 2 in both countries. "Radio Nowhere" was included on Springsteen's 2009 ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' compilation.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Radio Nowhere", directed by Thom Zimny, was released on

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on September 4, 2007. It consists mostly of Springsteen and the E Street Band playing the song in a darkened studio, interspersed with filmed

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

street scenes and a few shots of a recent promotional photograph of Springsteen being torn.

Live performance history

"Radio Nowhere" was the set opener for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 Magic Tour during the first leg. It subsequently shifted to being the second song played, with various other choices ahead of it, but overall it was performed in every show of that tour but one. On the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, "Radio Nowhere" was the only song from ''Magic'' that was regularly performed. Its position on the setlist was often moved around to match the segment of the concert where 18-year-old Jay Weinberg substituted for his father on drums.

Tommy Tutone controversy

"Radio Nowhere" features a set of guitar riffs and chord progression at the beginning that many fans considered particularly similar to " 867-5309/Jenny", written by

Alex Call Alexander Marvin Call (born September 27, 1994) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Cleveland Guardians. Amateur career Born in Bu ...

and Jim Keller, lead guitarist for Tommy Tutone, although the lyrics and the tone of the two songs are quite different. Tommy Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath was quoted as saying: "Everybody's calling me about it," Mark Caro
"Tommy 'Tutone' Heath speaks!"
, ''

The Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN radio and WGN tel ...

'', August 31, 2007. Accessed September 1, 2007. and that, "I think it's close enough that if I wanted to ake legal action I could work with it." Heath later clarified that he did not intend to take action and that he felt "really honored at a similarity, if any". Both songs were released on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2007 songs 2007 singles Bruce Springsteen songs Songs written by Bruce Springsteen Song recordings produced by Brendan O'Brien (record producer) Columbia Records singles Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance Grammy Award for Best Rock Song Songs about radio