Three Minute Record: "Mountain of Love"

Welcome to Three Minute Record, the edition of this newsletter where we dive into Bruce Springsteen’s best cover versions. You can read more about the purpose of this exercise here and see other volumes here.

In this edition, we discuss "Mountain of Love," written by Harold Dorman and popularized by Johnny Rivers.

"As soon as we started doing these requests, people started getting very sassy. Very sassy. Trying to stump us with stuff we played 25,  30 years ago. The elephant never forgets! So tonight we'll challenge the band... and probably challenge most of the audience, too!" This is how Bruce Springsteen introduced the first performance of “Mountain of Love” in 33 years, live from what was known as the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO, at the second-to-last (or third, depending on who you ask*) show of the 2008 tour. 

That night I was on the second GA barrier behind the pit, and everyone in my immediate vicinity completely and utterly lost their fucking minds. (You can hear this on the recording. It's fantastic.) There was no one in the audience who thought they were going to hear that song tonight, or, actually, ever, except for whoever decided they were going to bring a sign for that particular E Street Band oldie -- and I’d bet that even that individual when pressed would probably confess that they were sure it was a long shot. 

But it was a good night to take that shot, given that the band came on and opened with “Then (S)he Kissed Me,” E Street's gender-swapped cover of the Crystals’ 1963 hit. Most Springsteen fans know it from either bootlegs of the 1975 Bottom Line shows or from various compilations over the years that focused on the early rock and roll covers that would show up in the early-to-mid 70s era of E Street. “Then (S)he Kissed Me” was on the written setlist and had been soundchecked before the St. Louis show probably courtesy of signage in Nashville two nights/one show earlier. 

[That was one of the dangers of the sign request era, that if you had a good sign that Bruce knew would need a little rehearsal first, he’d take the sign and the song would show up a show or two later, and you’d be sitting at home watching the setlist roll in on BTX or Twitter (no? just me?) and shake your head in disgust that you’d missed it. (Not that Nashville in 2008 was anything to be disappointed in!)]

“Mountain of Love” was not on the written setlist for St. Louis, nor was it soundchecked, but to my ear at the time, it definitely felt like it had some preparation. It’s fun to hear Bruce coach the band through it ("Once more! Half time!”), and be sure to listen to Roy Bittan’s flourishes. I’m sorry that either Clarence didn’t have the baritone sax or that he didn’t play it because he was having mobility issues – this was the tour with the elevator and the illuminated throne, after all – or I just can’t hear it in the mix. But none of it mattered because after decades of listening to that song and wishing we were there when it was performed, now we all were.

It felt like the entire arena was levitating six inches off the ground that night, not just because it was a song that no one thought they’d ever hear and hadn’t been played in three decades, but because the E Street Band performs an absolutely righteous version of the song, and that night in St. Louis, they absolutely lived up to that reputation. 

“Mountain of Love” was originally written and performed by a true one-hit wonder by the name of Harold Dorman. If you haven’t heard of him, it’s not because you haven’t done your homework, it’s because he isn’t well-known and because in this instance he wrote a song that ended up being made famous by someone exponentially bigger and brighter: Johnny Rivers.

Rivers was a 60's-era pop star who you probably know because he’s the guy who sang “Secret Agent Man” (among other hits). He specialized in a stripped-down presentation of classic rock and roll, close to rockabilly and not far from the aesthetic Elvis himself would explore around the time of his ‘68 Comeback Special. Rivers recorded a fantastic version of “Mountain of Love” in 1964 with the Wrecking Crew as his backing band. His version went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year. 

It's rare to hear/read anyone writing about “Mountain of Love” in the context of Bruce Springsteen to mention Johnny Rivers. While it is factually correct that Dorman wrote the song, his record didn't become a hit, and I'll argue it wasn't the version that the E Street Band based their arrangement on.