Bruce Springsteen has written a number of songs about New Jersey, girls, and girls from New Jersey, so it’s surprising that Tom Waits got around to calling a song “Jersey Girl” before he did. The Boss did cover the single from 1980’s Heartattack and Vine, though, and his version is arguably more well known than the original (the same thing happened to Waits with “Downtown Train” and Rod Stewart). At the very least, it’s more of an honor for Springsteen to call you a “Jersey girl” than Waits. Just ask Rachel Zegler.
Zegler, a girl from Jersey, was delighted when Springsteen visited her on the set of West Side Story. “Bruce Springsteen came three times, and he came to see me sing ‘I Feel Pretty.’ He had his Aviators on, and he’s like, ‘Gotta see the Jersey girl sing.’ And I just peed my pants,” the actress said on The Graham Norton Show. “I was losing my mind. That day, I could not go up and talk to him. It was him and Stephen Sondheim…”
That set visit, the one with Springsteen and the guy who wrote the lyrics to West Side Story (the second most famous Steven/Stephen there), should not be confused with the time the Boss dropped by the same day as composer John Williams and former-president Barack Obama. Who knew they were such big fans of Shrek the Musical?