A legendary 1975 show in London introduced Bruce Springsteen to Europe

Watch some of Bruce Springsteen's most memorable live performances

The Boss is as renowned for his songwriting as his live performances, especially those backed by the E Street Band. Check out some of the most significant cuts from his career on the road, including a legendary 1975 set from London's Hammersmith Odeon credited with breaking Springsteen on the world stage.

Jon Landau reviewed a Springsteen show, then became his manager

Jon Landau reviewed a Springsteen show, then became his managerJon Landau, a writer for a Boston newspaper, saw Springsteen and his recently-named E Street Band perform in 1974 and wrote, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen." He would go on to coproduce "Born to Run" and work as Springsteen's manager for decades.

1984's 'Born in the USA' was a sensation, due in part to its music videos

The album was Springsteen's most pop-focused, with blaring synths and a pumping backbeat. It was a pop culture sensation, with five singles that reached the top 10, a massive arena tour, and several iconic music videos coinciding with MTV's rise. The record would eventually become one of the best-selling albums of all time.

The song 'Born to Run' took six months to record

Springsteen's early records were commercial flops, leading Columbia to offer the songwriter an ultimatum: He would deliver a hit single or be dropped by the label. He delivered what they wanted with "Born to Run," but sessions for the song lasted half a year. Embed: Podcast

Springsteen's nickname 'the Boss' began as a joke

Springsteen's E Street bandmates originally called him the "Gut Bomb King" because of his affinity for candy. He hated the name and jokingly began calling himself "the Boss" instead. When critics began digging into Springsteen's backstory after the success of "Born to Run," they unearthed the nickname.

Springsteen's first band was called the Castiles

Springsteen joined a local garage rock band at 16. The band was influenced by British Invasion acts like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, as well as the burgeoning American psychedelic scene.

Watch Springsteen open a somber 9/11 tribute

“America: A Tribute to Heroes” was a fundraising telethon on Sept. 21, 2001, and simulcast across the four major networks. Springsteen opened the program with “My City of Ruins,” a song originally written about Asbury Park that took on new significance after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ed Sullivan launched Beatlemania in America

By 1964, The Beatles were relative unknowns in the US, due to Capitol's lukewarm support. That changed when they were booked on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular program that hosted Elvis Presley's breakout performance. The Beatles' appearance introduced them to an American audience.

In 1988, Bruce Springsteen inducted Dylan into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Bob Dylan was one of the earliest inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, joining the third class in 1988. A Dylan devotee (and eventual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee), Bruce Springsteen, did the honors of inducting the legendary musician, offering a tribute that makes the case for Dylan as the catalyst for decades of innovative music.

Live Aid featured 16 hours of live music across two continents

The 1985 benefit concerts took place in London and Philadelphia, and performances from both locations were televised simultaneously.

A 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall introduced the American press to bossa nova

Bossa nova was still largely under the radar when João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfa, Sergio Mendes, and others performed at the storied Carnegie Hall in New York. Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil noted that the showcase's success was surprising to both the musicians and Brazilians, who began taking the music more seriously as a cultural export.

The Clash's breakthrough hit wasn't listed on ‘London Calling’

“Train in Vain” was a hit in the US, something that hadn’t yet happened for other first-wave punk acts. But the song was added to “London Calling” at the last minute, after the record jackets were already printed, making it one of the more popular “hidden tracks” in popular music.

Dylan's raucous 1976 tour was one piece of an ongoing reinvention

In the mid-70s, Dylan assembled a ragtag group of musicians and poets—including Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Allen Ginsberg—he called the Rolling Thunder Revue. Rather than playing stadiums in major markets, they played smaller venues in smaller cities for a more intimate experience. The tour yielded some of the most exuberant versions of Dylan songs, captured in this 1976 performance in Fort Collins, which originally aired on NBC as “Hard Rain.”

Witness the birth of punk rock through the archives of an influential music magazine

Trouser Press magazine (originally Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press) was an influential publication that operated from 1974 to 1984. During that time, they ran cover stories on emerging acts like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and others, offering contemporary readers a window into how punk was understood as it evolved.

Ireland's Slane Castle has hosted over 1.5 million visitors for its rock concerts

The first act to play the legendary venue was Ireland's own Thin Lizzy in 1981. The band was joined by another promising young Irish band: U2.

Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity seven times

The first was in 1961, after performing at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. Subsequent arrests were in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. He died of a morphine overdose in 1966, a year and a half after being found guilty of his New York charge.

The Rolling Stones were paid $3M to have 'Start Me Up' in the Windows 95 promo

The fee was part of Microsoft's $300M advertising and promotional campaign for the operating system, which featured the Start button for the first time. The company also filmed sitcom-style infomercials featuring "Friends" TV stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry.

The 1973 ‘back to school jam’ was the night hip-hop was born

Hip-hop began in New York’s Bronx borough with the “back to school jam,” an August 1973 dance party hosted by Cindy Campbell and her brother, DJ Kool Herc, in their apartment building’s recreation room.

Stonehenge was part of a continent-wide "henge" boom

While Stonehenge is the most famous, it was one of roughly 1,300 henges built across prehistoric Europe. This piece from the British Museum situates Stonehenge within the broader ceremonial tradition.

HBO premiered the modern stand-up special in 1975

When they appeared on TV, stand-ups were typically limited to five-minute spots on late-night talk shows, like "The Tonight Show." That changed with the fledgling HBO, which offered comics hourlong slots. The first was "An Evening with Robert Klein," a special that would define "the hour" for decades.

In 2008, Prince covered Radiohead

Prince's 2008 headlining set at Coachella is one of the most legendary in the history of the festival—in no small part because of this eight-minute cover of Radiohead's "Creep." His version turns the grunge-era classic into a tortured R&B ballad.

The studio behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled promotion before its national release

Before its national release in 1975, the studio behind "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" decided the musical movie was too strange, campy, and unwieldy for most audiences and cut its promotional efforts, hoping to minimize its losses. That decision led to the film flopping commercially. It wasn't until a theater began screening the film at midnight that it caught on, attracting a devoted fanbase who attended weekly screenings and dressed as their favorite characters—a tradition that continues to this day.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Plenty of excellent shows take place far outside the Big Apple

Regional theaters like the La Jolla Playhouse often act as testing grounds for Broadway, allowing audiences to witness groundbreaking world premieres before they hit the Great White Way.

What it means to be an opening act

Most people assume opening for a major act will propel a smaller artist's career. While that can be the case, this academic study from a Drexel University professor offers some objective data that suggests mixed results. In short, there's no guarantee that an opening slot on a big tour will enhance an artist's popularity—or their income.

Watch ABBA perform on Eurovision in 1974

The pop group won the 1974 competition, representing Sweden with the song "Waterloo." It was the first time the country took home the Eurovision title and the start of a long, successful career for ABBA, who'd eventually become one of the world's bestselling musical groups.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight