In Gurinder Chadha's coming-of-age story Blinded By the Light, the music of Bruce Springsteen provides hope for a British Pakistani teen who feels frustrated by his home life in the London suburb of Luton. Blinded By the Light's soundtrack features, as you'd expect, plenty of Springsteen songs along with nostalgic picks from the 1980s, when the movie is set.
Blinded By the Light is based on journalist Sarfraz Manzoor's memoirs, Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion and Rock N’ Roll, which recount the powerful influence that Springsteen's music had on Manzoor as a teenager. In the film, Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra) is an aspiring writer who is studying for his A levels and trying to survive amid the economic trouble and racism of the 1980s. Javed's father (Kulvinder Ghir) has been laid off from his factory job and is unable to find work, leading him to push Javed towards a job that makes money. Salvation comes when Roops (Aaron Phagura), a student at Javed's college, introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen, whose lyrics that seem to spell out exactly how Javed is feeling.
Blinded By the Light includes classic Springsteen tracks like "Dancing in the Dark" and "Thunder Road," but also includes a previously unreleased song called "I'll Stand By You" that Springsteen recorded for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The song didn't end up being included in the movie, but thanks to Springsteen's collaboration on Blinded By the Light, has finally been released. Here are all the classic songs on Blinded By the Light's soundtrack:
- "It's a Sin" - Pet Shop Boys
- "The Sun Always Shines On T.V." - a-ha
- "Dancing In the Dark" - Bruce Springsteen
- "The River" - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
- "Badlands" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Cover Me" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Thunder Road" - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
- "Prove It All Night" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Hungry Heart" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Because the Night" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Maar Chadapa" - Heera
- "The Promised Land" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Blinded By The Light" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Born to Run" - Bruce Springsteen
- "I'll Stand By You" - Bruce Springsteen
Blinded By the Light's original soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, who also composed the Oscar-winning score for Danny Boyle's 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. In addition to the jukebox numbers, the Blinded By the Light soundtrack album also includes original tracks composed for the film like "Javed's Poem" and "For You My Love," as well as audio excerpts from the film featuring the cast. Here are the original tracks on Blinded By the Light's official soundtrack:
- "Ode to Javed" / "Javed's Poem" - A.R. Rahman
- "The Boss Of Us All" - 'Blinded By The Light' cast
- "You Should Be Listening to Our Music" - 'Blinded By The Light' cast
- "I Never Knew Music Could Be Like That" - 'Blinded By The Light' cast
- "Get Out of My Way Fascist (Pigs)" - Amer Chadha-Patel
- "Number One Paki Film" - 'Blinded By The Light' cast
- "Do It For Me" - 'Blinded By The Light' cast
- "You, Me... and Bruce" - 'Blinded By The Light' cast
- "For You My Love" - A.R. Rahman
Blinded By the Light's official soundtrack is available now on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon.