Tom Waits May Have Written It, But Springsteen's Classic Cover Reigns Supreme

In 1980, Tom Waits wrote a Springsteen song better than Bruce Springsteen could write a Springsteen song. With a title like "Jersey Girl," it's understandable that someone would think the song was written by New Jersey's patron saint of music, but Springsteen didn't release his version until 1984 as the B-side to his single "Cover Me," and again two years later as the closing track of his monumental box set "Live 1975-85."

"There's a guy that's written a lot of great songs like 'Ol' 55,' 'Heart of Saturday Night,' and this song," Springsteen told a sold-out LA crowd in 1981. "I remember it was one of those songs I said, 'Well, I wish I'd wrote that.' It's a song called 'Jersey Girl,' and Tom Waits is gonna sing it with us." That 1981 show in LA was a passing of the torch of sorts, because from there, the song became a staple of Springsteen's live set.

"Jersey Girl" was first released in 1980 by Tom Waits on his album "Heartattack and Vine." Waits, a California native, wrote the song about his soon-to-be wife at the time, Kathleen Brennan, who had grown up in New Jersey. The lyrics romanticize the gritty veneer of Jersey and the abandonment of adolescent pleasures ("Got no time for the corner boys / Down in the street makin' all that noise") in order to pursue a life with this Jersey girl he wants to make his wife ("You know she thrills me with all her charms / When I'm wrapped up in my baby's arms / My little angel gives me everything / I know someday that she'll wear my ring").

The song's structure, guitar-led verses, and stripped-back, seedy storytelling are typical of the kinds of songs Bruce Springsteen wrote on albums such as "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River." Rolling Stone praised "Jersey Girl" as one of the standout tunes on Waits' album: "Lyrically, 'Jersey Girl' conjures up Bruce Springsteen's world, then adds an arrangement that echoes the Drifters' 'Spanish Harlem.' ... Tom Waits finds more beauty in the gutter than most people would find in the Garden of Eden."

Bruce Springsteen added "Jersey Girl" to his setlist while on tour for "The River" in 1981. He changed the song by writing an extra verse depicting the Jersey Girl as a single, working mother, and edited the original opening lines from "Or the w***** on Eighth Avenue" to "Or the girls out on the avenue." The song became a fan favorite in his setlist and closed out his nearly four-hour, 40-song box set, "Live 1975-85," a compilation of his live performances from that period.

The song has become so closely identified with Springsteen that it's often mistaken for a Springsteen original. While performing "Jersey Girl" on "VH1 Storytellers" in September 2000, Jon Bon Jovi (who is also from New Jersey) shut down a heckler. "It's not a Bruce song!" Bon Jovi snapped. "No, you moron, that's a Tom Waits song! ... Though Springsteen wishes he wrote that song, I wish I wrote that song even more. It was that grouchy old guy from California, Tom Waits." The Traveling Wilburys (which included one of Springsteen's idols) also referenced "Jersey Girl" in their song "Tweeter and the Monkey Man," which mentions several Springsteen songs by name, including "Thunder Road," "The River," and "Mansion on the Hill."

Waits hasn't been recorded playing the song since his own episode of "VH1 Storytellers" in 1999. More than two decades later, Springsteen recorded it with his wife Patti Scialfa as part of the Jersey 4 Jersey COVID-19 benefit show. In an interview with Bill Flanagan for the music journalist's 1987 book "Written in My Soul," Waits joked about Springsteen's adoption of the song: "Well, I've done all I can for him. He's on his own now."