Bruce Springsteen's 1975 classic Born to Run has turned 40 years old, prompting a series of retrospectives on the album that made Bruce a star.

Speaking with The Week, Peter Ames Carlin, author of the Springsteen bio, Bruce, says the label, Columbia, was not fully behind the record at first.

"Noting the terrible sales of the first two records, they did throw down the gauntlet, only giving Bruce enough recording money to make a single, which would serve as his audition for making a third album."

Springsteen, in a previously unreleased interview with Rolling Stone, said he and the E Street Band had no other options but to push ahead.