In 1977, Bruce Springsteen Wrote This Song — 2 Years Later The Pointer Sisters Made It A Billboard Hit

Bruce Springsteen had already launched his career with the fiery rebel anthem "Born to Run" in 1975 when he came up with a grooving tune that would become a hit for the Pointer Sisters. In the late '70s, Springsteen's history of providing songs for other artists included Manfred Mann's Earth Band's 1977 chart-topping version of "Blinded by the Light" and Patti Smith's striking Top 20 1978 collaboration, "Because the Night." But the spirited multi-genre vocal group and the working class New Jersey troubadour were a strange pairing that turned out to be a match made in musical heaven, creating an unforgettable little number called "Fire" that took the Pointer Sisters all the way to the penultimate spot on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1979.

Springsteen was inspired to write the song in 1977 after seeing a live performance by Elvis Presley, who he hoped would record it. The King died before the Boss could make it happen. Instead, the song passed into the hands of Robert Gordon, a rockabilly revivalist who gave it the twang-and-croon treatment on his 1978 version. But Gordon's Elvis impersonation didn't hit as hard as when the Pointer Sisters slowed the tempo to a sexy simmer and imbued the lyrics with a generous splash of sensual heat. The playful, gender-swap reading gave female voices the chance to get clever with the hot-and-heavy, male-centered lyrics, a big move for women's empowerment in the '70s.

Rock producer extraordinaire Richard Perry helped craft the bluesy arrangement of "Fire" for the Pointer Sisters' 1978 "Energy" album, helping the group conjure up what became the definitive version of the song. An airy, slow-building tension between the guitars, organ, and piano gave Anita Pointer a roiling tapestry to sing against, with sisters Ruth and June joining in to harmonize on the only refrain in this song-without-a-chorus, "'Cause when we kiss / Ooh, fire." With voices like theirs, it's all the refrain this song needs. And the growing sizzle of the background players as they pile on in the bridge revs up the song's musical engine, setting the sisters up for a cool return as they improv a vocalized close-out.

"Fire" became the first Pointer Sisters song to break into Billboard's Top 10, peaking at No. 2 in February 1979. Springsteen had included it in his live shows in 1978, and when he surged to chart dominance with his juggernaut album and decade-defining single, 1984's "Born in the U.S.A.," he added the tune back into his shows, getting gruff and growly with it to remind audiences that his songwriting talents helped the sisters spark their own "Fire." His live version became a single in 1987, though it didn't do nearly as well as the Pointer Sisters' version, which stands as the template for the much-covered song today.