Atlantic City
by Bruce Springsteen
- 108
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 48
- Danceability
- 31
- Acousticness
Bruce Springsteen first called "Atlantic City" "Fistful of Dollars," after the Clint Eastwood movie. He recorded two demos in April 1981 at his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, then another in late 1981 under the new title. Over two weeks, from December 17, 1981, to January 3, 1982, he made at least five takes on a Portastudio. The third take is the one used on Nebraska.
He sang and played guitar, harmonica and mandolin himself. His sleeve notes say he recorded it in his bedroom on a four-track Tascam that cost $1,050, mixed through an old Gibson guitar unit to a beat box. In a letter to Jon Landau, Springsteen wrote that the song should probably be done with the whole band rocking out. He spent three days, April 26 to 28, 1982, trying to turn the demo into a rock record at the Power Station. Landau insisted on the solo version.
The opening lines refer to the March 1981 killing of Philadelphia crime boss Phil "The Chicken Man" Testa, whose house was blown up with a nail bomb. A young couple heads for Atlantic City, where the man plans to take a job in organized crime because of his debts.
Atlantic City runs at 108 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.22 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 556 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.