Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the debut studio album by Bruce Springsteen. It was produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos from July through September 1972 at the budget-priced 914 Sound Studios. The album was released January 5, 1973, by Columbia Records to average sales but positive critical reviews. "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night" were released as singles by Columbia, both failing to reach the U.S. charts; however, "Blinded by the Light" was later covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band in 1977, reaching number one in the United States and
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.