Bruce Springsteen signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Despite the expectations of Columbia Records' executives that Springsteen would record an acoustic album, he brought many of his New Jersey-based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named for several months). His debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.", released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite though sales were slow. Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock-rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light" and "For You", as well as the Columbia
Asbury Park, New Jersey a potent but as yet unknown rival. A B&W multi-camera recording of Blondie in 1979, just prior to the release of their fourth album, Eat to the Beat, was taped at the Asbury Park Convention Hall on July 7, a home-state crowd for Jersey girl Debbie Harry, who was raised in Hawthorne. The New Jersey Music Hall of Fame was founded in Asbury Park in 2005. There are plans to build a museum somewhere in the city as part of the redevelopment. The West Side of Asbury Park has traditionally been home to black music, including jazz, soul, gospel, doo