In 1972, I got a call from my friend Craig Zeller who wrote for many NY Metro and national music magazines. He knows more about rock/pop music than anyone I know. He was always checking out bands and was able to pick and write about ones he knew would go on to be great in the music scene. The groups he wrote about benefitted from this recognition and he was very well known behind the scenes at venues like CBGBs, The Bottom Line, Stone Pony etc.

The call was about checking out a guy named Bruce Springsteen who was playing at the Seton Hall University gym. “What is a Bruce Springsteen?” I asked. “He’s gonna be big, but nobody north of exit 105 knows about him,” my friend replied.

My sister happened to know the sound technician for that show so we snuck in early and got front row folding chairs on the gym floor directly in front of the makeshift stage. We were blown away by the performance and I thought to myself, “Am I nuts or is this guy really great?”

I saw him at least a dozen times from 1972-1975 ending with his national promotional “debut” sponsored by Columbia Records at The Bottom Line in NYC. That week his picture was on the cover of both TIME and NEWSWEEK.

So a funny story is that Mr. Zeller and I saw him at The Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. At the end of his show he came back on stage and said, “I want to do an old Elvis song … it’s called… ‘Wear My Ring Around Your Neck’ … Hit It!” And the band came alive and Bruce belted out the song.

It turns out we had Springsteen tickets for the very next night in an arena outside Philadelphia. And once again for his encore Bruce announced, “I want to do an old Elvis song … it’s called … AND I INTERRUPT HIM AND SHOUT OUT … “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck.” SILENCE. But then Bruce replied “WHOA … somebody’s stalking me … HIT IT.”