"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" can be interpreted as either a bittersweet lament about getting older or an upbeat nostalgic remembrance of the narrator's younger days as he gazes at the beautiful girls in their summer clothes walking by. Springsteen's manager Jon Landeau described this song as having a "little bit of a Pet Sounds-type feeling mixed in with the sound of the E Street Band."
In an interview with the Sunday Times (30th September 2007), Springsteen was asked about the lyric, "Things been a little tight, but I know they're gonna turn my way": "I think people listening to that know who that guy is. I was interested in having a song where you get this classic image of a late summer, light on, in a small American town, and it's perfect in a way that only occurs in pop songs - when the air is just right, where the sun's sitting a certain way. And I subvert that at the end of the record with 'Long Walk Home.'"
This was Springsteen's first song to chart in the Hot 100 for nearly three years. The Boss's previous chart entry had been "Devils & Dust," which peaked at #72 in April 2005.
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