The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle departed from the folk influences of Springsteen's 1973 debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." and was instead characterized by "a grand fusion of nostalgic rock 'n' roll and soulful R&B". There is disagreement on "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle"'s release date between official sources and third-party sources, including various Springsteen biographies covering the era. Springsteen's official website provides a release date of September 11, 1973; however, it is known that Springsteen was still in the studio recording for the album past this date. The consensus among other sources is that the album was released in
Asbury Park, New Jersey hall. At the same time, Asbury Park launched a first-class education and athletic program with the construction of a state-of-the-art high school overlooking Deal Lake. On September 8, 1934, the wreck of the ocean liner SS "Morro Castle", which caught fire and burned, beached itself near the city just yards away from the Asbury Park Convention Hall; the city capitalized on the event, turning the wreck into a tourist attraction. In 1935, the newly founded Securities and Exchange Commission called Asbury Park's Mayor Clarence F. Hetrick to testify about $6 million in "beach improvement bonds" that had gone into default.