Personnel includes: Bruce Springsteen (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, harmonica, recorder, bass); Patti Scialfa (vocals, guitar); Nils Lofgren (guitar, slide guitar, dobro, banjo, background vocals); Steve Van Zandt (guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Danny Frederici (accordion, piano, organ, Farfisa organ, glockenspiel, background vocals); Clarence Clemons (saxophone, percussion, background vocals); Garry Tallent (tuba, bass, background vocals); Roy Bittan (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, pump organ, keyboards, synthesizer, glockenspiel, background vocals); David Sancious (piano, electric piano, organ, Clavinet); Max Weinberg (drums, background vocals); Soozie Tyrell (background vocals).

Producers includes: Bruce Springsteen, Mike Appel, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Steve Van Zandt.

Recorded between 1973 & 2002.

Personnel: Bruce Springsteen (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, harmonica, recorder, hand claps, background vocals); Patti Scialfa (vocals, guitar); Nils Lofgren (guitar, slide guitar, dobro, banjo, background vocals); Steven Van Zandt (guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Suki Lahav (violin); Jane Scarpantoni, Jere Flint (cello); Danny Federici (accordion, piano, organ, Farfisa, glockenspiel, background vocals); Clarence Clemons (saxophone, hand claps, percussion, background vocals); Jerry Vivino (tenor saxophone); Edward Manion (baritone saxophone); Michael Spengler, Mark Pender (trumpet); Richie Rosenberg (trombone); Garry Tallent (tuba, background vocals); David Sancious (piano, electric piano, Clavinet, organ); Roy Bittan (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, pump organ, Mellotron, keyboards, synthesizer, Kurzwell synthesizer, glockenspiel, background vocals); Harold Wheeler (piano); Gary Mallaber, Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion); Max Weinberg (drums, background vocals); Richard Blackwell (congas, percussion); Mike Appel, Soozie Tyrell (background vocals).

Audio Remasterer: Bob Ludwig.

Liner Note Author: Bruce Springsteen.

Photographers: Tim White; Frank Stefanko; Eric Meola; Neal Preston; Danny Clinch.

In the liner notes to his volume of Columbia's Essential series, Bruce Springsteen immediately lays out the problem with hits collections: "In any body of work there are obvious high points. The rest depends on who's doing the listening. Where you were, when it was, who you were with when a particular song or album cut the deepest." All artists have this problem, but Springsteen has it more than most, since he not only has a deep and varied body of work, but he has a passionate, dedicated fan base. Within that following, there are listeners who prefer his big-hearted, sprawling early work, those who love the cinematic grandeur of Born to Run, those who love his stark, intimate acoustic ballads, and those who adore his pile-driving rockers. He's had hits in all of these styles, and he's had concert and album rock radio staples in all those styles -- all of these tunes for his basic canon, the "obvious high points" -- but he's such a strong songwriter and record-maker that this leaves behind songs that many other artists would be thrilled to call their best work, whether it's the epic street poetry of "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" or the old-time rock & roll throwaway of "Pink Cadillac." Neither of those tunes are on the double-disc, 30-track Essential Bruce Springsteen, but any two-disc set can't hold all of Springsteen's great songs. It can only offer a representative sampling, which means there will be lots of terrific tracks and fan favorites absent -- Springsteen admits this, citing "Growin' Up," "Racing in the Street," "Backstreets," and "My City of Ruins" as MIA, while others could make just as convincing an argument for "My Hometown," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Fade Away," "I'm on Fire," "Prove It All Night," "Adam Raised a Cain," and the list goes on. The strength of The Essential is that you never notice these songs are missing. Unlike the previous Bruce compilation, the misguided, haphazardly selected Greatest Hits, The Essential contains all the big songs -- not just the obvious hits of "Hungry Heart," "Born to Run," "Born in the U.S.A.," and "Glory Days," but selections from his first two albums that were ignored completely the previous time out -- and it also contains just the right amount of latter-day material from the acclaimed The Rising, plus "American Skin (41 Shots)" and "Land of Hope and Dreams," two songs previously only available on Live in New York City. It adds up to an ideal introduction to Springsteen's music, capturing all sides of his musical output while being a hell of a good listen.

While the two main discs are for neophytes and casual fans, the third "bonus" disc is for the hardcore -- the kind of fans who will argue about the song selection on the previous two discs, and would be more interested in unreleased material than hits. This third disc is a clearing-house for items that should have made it to his previous rarities collection, Tracks, but didn't. This includes previously unreleased cuts, B-sides, contributions to soundtracks and benefit albums, covers, and an alternate, "country-blues" acoustic version of "Countin' on a Miracle" from The Rising. The disc follows a roughly chronological sequence and basically divides into early-'80s material and mid-'90s material. The '80s material has the edge due to the variety and strength of the material: the rampaging rocker "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)," a song Bruce gave to Dave Edmunds and has never released before now; the spare, tough "The Big Payback," a B-side; the searching "None but the Brave," cut during the Born in the U.S.A. sessions; the evocative "County Fair," cut after Nebraska; a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Trapped," cut on the River tour; a wonderfully raucous live "Held Up Without a Gun," a variation on "You Can Look but You Better Not Touch" with topical lyrics previously released as a B-side. These are fantastic performances, and while there are also very good cuts of a more recent vintage -- such as the Joe Grushecky collaboration "Code of Silence," his title song from Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, and a fun version of "Viva Las Vegas" -- these '80s songs are the heart of the collection. It's an unexpected gift to have them officially released as a bonus disc to a hits collection, and for the hardcore, it's worth buying two discs of songs you already have just get these rarities. And it helps make The Essential Bruce Springsteen really live up to its title. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

If you're looking for a definitive Bruce Springsteen collection, search no further. THE ESSENTIAL BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN covers every phase of the Boss's career, from the Dylan-inspired absurdist folk-rock of his 1973 debut, through the Brando-with-a-Telecaster pathos of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, to the Spectorian grandeur of BORN TO RUN and the stark, existential folk of NEBRASKA. And that's just the first disc! The second goes on to document Springsteen's superstar period with cuts from the epochal BORN IN THE USA and the moody, stripped-down TUNNEL OF LOVE, on through his post-9/11 mission statement, THE RISING.

For hardcore fans that already own everything on the first two CDs, there's a bonus disc of rarities--none of which appeared on the prolific songwriter's rarities box set, TRACKS. The brightest spots of disc three are easily the equal of Springsteen's best-known material. Bruce's own version of "From Small Things" (covered successfully by Dave Edmunds), a furious live version of the working man's lament "Held Up Without a Gun," and the gorgeously evanescent "County Fair" are worth the price of admission all by themselves. True to its promise, this collection perfectly captures the essence of the gifted Jersey boy's magic.