Thunder Road (track)
by Bruce Springsteen
Year: 1975
From the album Born To Run (track #1)
Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY
Thunder Road appears on the following album(s) by Bruce Springsteen:
- Born To Run (track #1) (this album) (1975)
- The Essential Bruce Springsteen (track #6) (compilation) (2003)
- Greatest Hits (track #2) (compilation) (1995)
- In Concert / MTV Plugged (track #9) (1993)
- The Album Collection: 1973-1984, Vol. 1 (track #17) (compilation) (2014)
- The Christic Shows November 16 & 17, 1990 (track #13) (2016)
- The Christic Shows November 16 & 17, 1990 (track #31) (2016)
- Collection: 1973-2012 (track #2) (compilation) (2013)
- Springsteen On Broadway (track #10) (2018)
- The Live Series: Songs Of The Road (track #1) (compilation) (2018)
Listen & Collect
Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.
Listen to Thunder Road on YouTube
Thunder Road ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this track. | Show all 587 ratings for this track.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/07/2026 18:42 |  travelful | 13,799 | 80/100 |
| ! | 08/25/2026 14:22 | billyboy66 | 53 | 89/100 |
| ! | 08/16/2026 13:27 |  Tamthebam | 46,158 | 79/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 1% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 90.9/100, a mean average of 89.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 91.1/100. The standard deviation for this track is 13.8.
Thunder Road favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this track as a favourite | Show all 64 members
Thunder Road comments
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Squonk007 04/21/2026 10:06 | #314034
A great introduction and probably the best track to open the album. (Edited)
Songwriting at its finest.
Onater 09/11/2016 01:43 | #174721
My favourite song ever.
My favourite song of all time. Thunder road is a superb track about the hopes and dreams of youth, the idea that there is something better in another town, another place. Originally titled, wings for wheels, this song finally evolved into, at least in my opinion, Springsteen's greatest ever song. Everything that embodies the perfect Springsteen song is in this track. There is that need to move on, the need to want something more. For all it's positivity though, Springsteen never tells us what happens to Mary and the narrator, where these 'wings for wheels' take them. Maybe it's towards the darkness on the edge of town, or is that darkness the reality that the optimistic duo will encounter further on down the road? Either way, thunder road, captures sweet youth at that moment when anything is possible, when all you had to do was hit the highway and run. Another reason why I love this song is the structure of the song. It doesn't rely on the verse/chorus of a traditional song as if the uncertainty of where they're going doesn't always follow a straight line. Still, it flows wonderfully well. The icing on the cake to the track though is Clarence Clemon's wonderful saxophone solo which takes the track to the most uplifting of conclusions. Thunder road is a brilliant track. The ultimate Bruce Springsteen song.
AAL2014 06/25/2016 03:13 | #169705
Lyrics from a god. Bruce starts his greatest album with one of his greatest songs. This specific record could not start any differently.
Your feedback for Thunder Road
