| "Fire" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band from the album Live/1975-85 |
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| B-side | "Incident on 57th Street (Live)" | ||||
| Released | April 1987 | ||||
| Format | 7" single | ||||
| Recorded | December 16, 1978 at the Winterland |
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| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 2:58 | ||||
| Label | Columbia Records | ||||
| Writer | Bruce Springsteen | ||||
| Producer | Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin | ||||
| Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band singles chronology | |||||
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- For other songs of this name, see Fire (song)
"Fire" is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and originally intended for use by Elvis Presley. It was first recorded by Robert Gordon in 1978, who received some modest album oriented rock radio airplay with it. It was then recorded and released by The Pointer Sisters later in 1978, who gained a major hit from it, reaching number two in early 1979 on the U.S. pop chart. Although he performed the song live from his 1978 tour onwards, Springsteen himself did not release his own recording of the song until his 1986 Live/1975-85 album, which contains his (heavily edited, to eliminate on-stage hijinks) 1978-12-16 performance. This version was released as a single (which contained the only "official" live version of "Incident on 57th Street", until its appearance on Live in Barcelona, as B-side), but did not succeed, reaching only number 46 on the U.S. pop chart. A music video for the song was released at the time, but confusingly showed a completely unrelated 1986 acoustic performance at a Bridge School Benefit concert. "Fire" was recorded again by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Des'ree in 1998, for the soundtrack of Hav Plenty. Robin Williams parodies "Fire" in the voice of Elmer Fudd. ( "I'm dwivin' in my cah / I tuwn on the wadio ... 'Cause when we ki-i-i-iss / FIWE!" )
Credits (Pointer Sisters version)
- Lead vocals by Anita Pointer
- Background vocals by Anita Pointer, Ruth Pointer and June Pointer
References
- Marsh, Dave. Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. Pantheon Books, 1987. ISBN 0-394-54668-7.
- Allmusic review of "Fire" by William Ruhlmann
