Video hit Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia

Streets of Philadelphia is an Academy Award-winning song, written and performed by American rock musician Bruce Springsteen for the film Philadelphia (1993), an early mainstream film dealing with HIV/AIDS.

Released in 1994, the song was a hit in many countries, particularly Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and Norway, where it topped the singles charts.

The song was a critical triumph and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television.

In early 1993, Philadelphia director Jonathan Demme asked Springsteen to write a song for the in-progress film, and in June, after the conclusion of the "Other Band" Tour, Springsteen did so. It was recorded with Springsteen supplying almost all of the instrumentation, with bass and background vocals from "Other Band" member Tommy Sims. Additional saxophone and vocal parts by Ornette Coleman and "Little" Jimmy Scott, respectively, were recorded but never used—although those elements are used in a brief scene in the film when Tom Hanks exits Denzel Washington's office.
Released in early 1994 as the main single from the film's original soundtrack, it became a huge success for Springsteen all over Europe and North America.

Music video

The music video for the song, directed by Jonathan Demme and his nephew Ted Demme, begins by showing Springsteen walking along desolate city streets, followed by a bustling park and schoolyard, interspersed with footage from the film. After a quick shot of Rittenhouse Square, it ends with Springsteen walking along the Delaware River, with the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in the background. Tom Hanks is also visible as the lead character he plays in the film, looking on as Bruce begins the final verse.

The vocal track for the video was recorded live during the shooting, using a hidden microphone, to a pre-recorded instrumental track. This was a technique, appropriate for emotionally intense songs for which conventional video lip-syncing would seem especially false, that John Mellencamp pioneered in his 1985 "Rain on the Scarecrow" video, and that Springsteen himself had used on his 1987 "Brilliant Disguise" video. Springsteen would go on to use the same technique in his "Lonesome Day" video in 2002.

Cover versions

The song has been covered live by Melissa Etheridge and David Gray. Recorded covers have been released by Ray Conniff (on his 1997 album, I Love Movies), Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Marah, Liv Kristine, Molly Johnson, Bettye Lavette, SALEM, Gregorian and I Muvrini with Anggun. Philadelphia rappers, Cassidy & the Larsiny Family have made a cover of this song on the Put Ya L in the Sky mixtape, in an effort to stop crime in the city.

French artist Patrick Bruel covered the song, translating the lyrics into French while retaining the music.

The song is also covered by The Fray on their album Scars and Stories, released in 2012.

In 2011, the German group Gregorian released a Gregorian chant version of the song in their album Masters of Chant Chapter VIII.

In 2009, it was covered by Luis Eduardo Aute in Catalonian as "Els carrers de Filadèlfia", for the CD of TV3's telethon La Marató.

In February 2013 Sir Elton John performed the song at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences tribute concert honoring Bruce Springsteen as the 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year.

The lyrics:

I was bruised and battered and I couldnt tell

What I felt

I was unrecognizable to myself

I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know

My own face

Oh brother are you gonna leave me

Wastin´away

On the streets of philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone

I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone

At night I could hear the blood in my veins

Black and whispering as the rain

On the streets of philadelphia

Aint no angel gonna greet me

Its just you and I my friend

My clothes don't fit me no more

I walked a thousand miles

Just to slip the skin

The night has fallen, Im lyinawake

I can feel myself fading away

So receive me brother with your faithless kiss

Or will we leave each other alone like this

On the streets of philadelphia