The Promise is the 17th studio album by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

, released November 16, 2010 on Columbia Records. It is a double CD compilation of previously unreleased songs drawing from the Darkness on the Edge of Town

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth album by Bruce Springsteen, released in the late spring of 1978. The album marked the end of a three year period of forced hiatus from recording brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel...

sessions. The album is also available as part of the box set The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story. The 2 CD version of the release entered the UK Albums Chart at number 7. It had been in production for many years and was originally scheduled to be released for the 30th anniversary in 2008. The Promise debuted at #16 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

, while the box set, The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, debuted at #27. Upon its release, The Promise received general acclaim from most music critics. "Ain't Good Enough for You", a track from the album was added to BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 and 96.2 The Revolution's playlists at the end of 2010. It marked the last appearance of Clarence Clemons

Clarence Clemons

Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...

 on a Bruce Springsteen/E Street Band

E Street Band

The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...

 album before his death on June 18, 2011, due to complications from a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

.

Reception

Commercial performance

The Promise debuted at #16 on the Billboard 200 being his lowest charting studio album on the chart since 1973's The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. While not selling as well as his previous studio albums on the American charts, the set did well on the European charts (with first week worldwide sales of over 187,000 units), opening at No. 1 in Germany, Spain, and Norway. It also charted at No. 4 in The Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland, No. 5 in Austria, No. 7 in the United Kingdom and No. 9 in Switzerland.

Critical response

Upon its release, The Promise received acclaim from most music critics. At Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which assigns a normalized

Standard score

In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...

 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average

Weighted mean

The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...

 score of 94, based on 16 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Allmusic gave it four and a half stars; they stated that, "The Promise stands on its own as a great Bruce Springsteen record; it feels finished, focused, and, above all, offers more proof that Springsteen is one of the greatest rock and pop songwriters" although stating that "The Promise" was the only track that might have added something to the original Darkness on the Edge of Town album. BBC Music

BBC Music

BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....

 had a favorable review and stated "The Promise is as compelling an advert for the Boss’s beautiful, blue-collar soul as you’re likely to find outside of the hits; an indispensible portrait of an artist at the top of his game."

Track listing

Disc 1

1. "Racing in the Street
   Racing in the Street
   "Racing in the Street" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. In the original vinyl format, it was the last song of side one of the album...
   
   " ('78) – 6:49
2. "Gotta Get That Feeling" – 3:17
3. "Outside Looking In" – 2:16
4. "Someday (We'll Be Together)" – 5:35
5. "One Way Street" – 4:19
6. "Because the Night
   Because the Night
   "Because the Night" is a song by the Patti Smith Group, written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith which was released as a single in 1978, taken from Smith's album Easter. The song was a hit, rising to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and helping propel sales of Easter to mainstream success –...
   
   " – 3:25
7. "Wrong Side of the Street" – 3:34
8. "The Brokenhearted" – 5:19
9. "Rendezvous" – 2:37
10. "Candy's Boy" – 4:38

Disc 2

1. "Save My Love" – 2:36
2. "Ain't Good Enough for You" – 4:01
3. "Fire" – 4:08
4. "Spanish Eyes" – 3:50
5. "It's a Shame" – 3:14
6. "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)" – 2:18
7. "Talk to Me" – 4:20
8. "The Little Things (My Baby Does)" – 3:17
9. "Breakaway" – 5:30
10. "The Promise" – 5:52
11. "City of Night"
    "The Way" (hidden track) – 7:08

Performances

On 16 November 2010, Springsteen performed "Because the Night" and "Save My Love" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The show premiered on March 2, 2009, as the third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman....

(along with a cover of Willow Smith

Willow Smith

Willow Camille Reign Smith , often known simply as Willow, is an American child actress and singer. She is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and the younger sister of Jaden Smith. Smith made her acting debut in 2007 in the film I Am Legend and later appeared in Kit Kittredge: An...

's "Whip My Hair

Whip My Hair

"Whip My Hair" is a song sung by American recording artist Willow Smith. The song is the debut single from her eponymous debut album, Willow. The song was written by Janae Rockwell and Ronald "Jukebox" Jackson, with the latter producing the track...

" with Fallon posing as Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

).

Chart positions

Chart (2010)	Peak position
European Top 100 Albums European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100...	2
German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	1
German Downloads Chart	4
Spanish Albums Chart	1
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	7
US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	16

Year-end charts

Chart (2010)	Rank
German Albums Chart	46
Spanish Albums Charts PROMUSICAE Spanish Music Producers is a trade group representing the Spanish recording industry...	39