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Bruce Springsteen released a covers album of classic Soul and R&B songs called Only the Strong Survive (2022). Springsteen has often covered songs live and he has done another album of covers (We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions). Yet, many fans are disappointed that the songwriter is not releasing an album of new material. There are plenty of sources providing in-depth reviews, so instead Chimesfreedom gives you ten quick takes.

1. Short Overall Review: If you like Springsteen, Only the Strong Survive features the artist singing great songs. So if you get past being disappointed by the lack of new original songs, you should just sit back and enjoy this lovely album.

2. Do album reviews matter anymore? Most folks pay for a streaming service and can listen to anything they want without commitment. So if you like Springsteen or are curious, you can listen to the album and make up your own mind. I am old school and resisting streaming so I did buy it as I have done for every Springsteen album; and I’m happy I did.

3. Springsteen’s Voice: As others have noted, Springsteen’s voice has aged like a fine wine, and he is able to pull off these classic songs quite well. For example, on “I Wish It Would Rain,” one of the greatest pop records of all time, nobody can hold a candle to the Temptations’ David Ruffin. Springsteen does not surpass Ruffin or any of the originals, but he does a darn good job.

4. Well, then why do we need this album if we have the better originals? First, Springsteen has earned the right to do whatever he wants, and great songwriters can do tributes to music they love (as Merle Haggard did with albums honoring Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills). Second, if you are a fan, it is fun to hear him sing these classics. And third, while compilation albums can be good and you could make a playlist of the original versions of these songs, one artist doing a covers album offers a consistency to your listening that jumping between artists does not.

5. Good Song, Strange Video: Springsteen’s weird hand movements in the video for the Commodores’ “Nightshift” are distracting and may make it one of his worst videos ever. His facial expressions are distracting too.

6. Sounds Like a Springsteen Classic: By contrast, his recording of and video for “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” sounds like a classic Springsteen song from the first moment when the Boss yells “C’mon.” The video is fantastic and fun too.

6. The Music: The musicians, including the E Street Horns, and backing singers (Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, Curtis King Jr., Dennis Collins, and Fonzi Thornton) on this album are absolutely fantastic.

7. A Southside Johnny Album? Not surprisingly, Springsteen singing R&B covers at times makes you think you are listening to an album by that other guy from Jersey, Southside Johnny. That is not necessarily a bad thing. At no point is the Southside Johnny connection stronger than on “Don’t Play that Song,” initially made famous by Ben E. King. Springsteen even inserts a reference to the Jersey Shore.

8. Covering Diana Ross: Maybe my favorite track on the album is the final song, with Springsteen singing “Someday We’ll Be Together,” made famous by Diana Ross & the Supremes. Along with Aretha Franklin’s “Don’t Play That Song” and Jackie Shane’s “Any Other Way,” the Supremes song features one of the selections where he is covering a song made famous by female singers. So Springsteen’s recording does add a twist to hear a male voice sing the lyrics. Or maybe it is that Springsteen finds a special connection to the song, having previously written a song with the nearly identical title, “Someday (We’ll Be Together).” Springsteen wrote that outtake from Darkness on the Edge of Town around 1977, but first released it on The Promise (2010).

9. Guest Artist: It’s cool that Sam Moore from Sam & Dave sings on two tracks with Springsteen. But why not a Sam & Dave song? Springsteen has indicated there were a lot of tracks recorded that are not on the album, so I wonder if there will be a sequel album.

10. Repeated Listens: Okay, you could have just read the first point and stopped reading. But the more I listen to the album, the more I get past focusing on differences from the originals and let go and just enjoy the songs. While this album probably won’t be at the top of my list of the greatest Springsteen albums, it will likely be in the running for one of the Springsteen albums I am most likely to play. It will be a great one to play if you have company who may not think they are Springsteen fans.

What do you think of Only the Strong Survive? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

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In the Temptations classic “I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You),” the singer’s lover has just told him that she is leaving and he begs her to stay, pleading he could never love another. Many sources explain that the song, and in particular the line, “You’ve taken away my reason for livin’,” were based on a true story.

The story behind the song involves young Motown songwriter Rodger Penzabene, who co-wrote “I Could Never Love Another.” He also co-wrote the similarly themed “I Wish It Would Rain” from the same album. On those songs, his co-writers were Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Penzabene also wrote other songs of heartbreak, including co-writing “Save Me From This Misery” for the Isley Brothers.

Penzabene and his wife had met as youths at Mumford High School. But sometimes love does not last forever.

Reportedly Penzabene had taken his wife back after she had an affair, but she ended up leaving him after all. As the album with “I Could Never Love Another” climbed the charts, Penzabene killed himself by gunshot on New Year’s Eve in 1967. He was 22.

Nothing makes the story more convincing than the anguished lead vocals on “I Could Never Love Another” by the great David Ruffin on his final lead vocal on a Temptations single (and who also died too soon from a tragic death). The way Ruffin sings the word “believe” in the first line immediately conveys the heartbreak and pain that permeates the entire song.

To the degree the song’s suicide backstory is true, though, we can never really know. Penzabene wrote the great song, and it seems he felt that heartbreak and loss. But suicide is a complicated act. If everyone who is deeply heartbroken killed herself or himself, our species would have died out long ago.

Penzabene also wrote lyrics for happy songs, such as “You’re My Everything.” He wrote that Temptations song with his friend Cornelius Grant. The two men were so close that before Penzabene killed himself, he sent Grant a telegram stating, “Rodger Penzabene is dead.” The songwriter also wrote a letter to his family and friends apologizing for the grief that would come from his death.

Of course, Penzabene’s feelings about his lost love likely contributed to his depression. But one could probably point to other factors too that might have contributed to the final act of the young father. At age 22, he was still almost a kid, trying to make some sense of the world and his success. And, at the time of his death, reportedly he was losing his sight due to a head injury. Who knows what role the holiday of New Year’s Eve contributed to his feelings? Who knows what frustrations he faced in the music industry? One of his sons later noted in an online comment that Penzabene’s songs were not about heartbreak over a woman but about frustrations with the music industry and Motown in particular.

So, even if a simplified tragic love story fits with our perception of the song, there is more to the tale than that someone was heartbroken, wrote a brilliant sad song about that heartbreak, and then killed himself as the song climbed the charts.

Songwriter Rodger and his wife Helga Penzabene — Rodger and Helga Penzabene (both seated) at their wedding

At the time of the songwriter’s death, Penzabene’s wife Helga Penzabene was very young herself, caring for the couple’s two young sons, Rodger Jr. and 10-month-old Carl. After Penzabene’s death, she tried to set the record straight by clarifying that Rodger did not kill himself over her. In 2012, she wrote in the comments to a post on Elvis Needs Boats that she was alive and well, living in Mount Clemens, Michigan. She had remarried twice, most recently divorced, and she still sang. She reported that she was working on a book about her life with Rodger.

That book was never written. Helga passed away in 2016 from cancer.

I suspect, though, that whatever words might have been written in a book, many would still choose to believe the less complex heartbroken suicide version. We need tragic heroes, and the song is too great, the Temptations too awesome, and our own experiences of heartbreak so painful, that maybe we just want to believe that the songwriter killed himself after losing his reason for living.