1987Released
4:33

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Tougher Than the Rest. By Songfacts®.

This song finds Springsteen telling his lover that he's willing to stick it out and be there for her - he's tougher than the rest of the guys she's used to. It's a romantic song that embodies the Tunnel Of Love album, which Bruce describes as his first album of love songs.

When performed live, "Tougher Than The Rest" is a showcase song for Patti Scialfa, a member of Springsteen's E Street Band who comes to the front of the stage to sing it with him. This can be seen in the music video for the song, which is mostly comprised of concert footage. Springsteen and Scialfa have a clear connection on stage, and that spark was very real. But at the time, Bruce was married to his first wife, Julianne Phillips, which must have been rather awkward. Scialfa joined Springsteen's E Street Band in 1984, and a year later he married Phillips. When he worked on the Tunnel Of Love album, their marriage was in trouble. They split in 1988 and finalized their divorce in 1989. Scialfa and Springsteen had their first child together in 1990 and married in 1991. In later years, Bruce would often introduce this song with kind words about Patti before bringing her to the front of the stage. The song may or may not have been influenced by Scialfa when Springsteen wrote it, but after they connected, he clearly considered it to be for her.

The song was released as a single throughout Europe and did very well in the UK, where it reached #13, It wasn't issued as a single in America.

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Tougher Than the Rest.
FKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
99BPM

Album

The album Tougher Than the Rest is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Tougher Than the Rest.
Columbia
(P) 1987 Bruce Springsteen

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.8MArtists
73.6MSongs
12.3MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
493KPlaylists