Pink Cadillac (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Pink Cadillac


Artist = Natalie Cole
from Album = Everlasting
Released = 1988
Format = 7" single, 12" single
Recorded =
Genre = R & B
Length = 4:12
Label = EMI Manhattan
Writer = Bruce Springsteen
Producer = Dennis Lambert
Chart position =

#5 (U.S.)

Reviews =
Last single = "I Live For Your Love"
(1988)
This single = "Pink Cadillac"
(1988)
Next single = "When I Fall in Love"
(1988)"Pink Cadillac" is a 1984 humorous rockabilly song by Bruce Springsteen. It is most known as a Top 10 hit single in 1988, recorded in R&B fashion by Natalie Cole.

History

Springsteen was inspired as a seven-year-old by seeing Elvis Presley on "The Ed Sullivan Show", so it was only fitting that Elvis's Pink Cadillac entered into Springsteen's music world. "Pink Cadillac" continued his well-known obsession with car imagery in songs. It was his second song about the brand, 1980's "Cadillac Ranch" being the first."Pink Cadillac" was first recorded by Springsteen in a stark acoustic version in early January 1982, part of a session that later became the "Nebraska" album. [ [http://www.brucebase.org.uk/9.htm BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - ON THE TRACKS V4 ] ] He pulled it out again in May 1983, during the sessions for the "Born in the U.S.A." album; putting together a quick demo after most of the crew had left a session. He started strumming the riff on an acoustic guitar, put down the basic track, and then recorded the rest of it with the band in the morning. It was on the short list for inclusion on the album, until it was bumped in favor of "I'm Going Down".

Instead, it was released as the B-side of the album's first and biggest hit single, "Dancing in the Dark".

It later appeared as one of two songs (along with "Cover Me") on a CD3 released in 1988. It did not appear on any Springsteen album until the late 1990s outtakes-and-B-sides collections "Tracks" and "18 Tracks".

Natalie Cole's rendition was a #5 Billboard Hot 100 pop hit in 1988. It was also a #5 UK Singles Chart pop hit across the Atlantic. [ [http://www.everyhit.com/searchsec.php everyHit.com] - search for Title "Pink Cadillac".] It also was a #16 Adult Contemporary hit, and topped the Dance chart. It reached #2 on the United World chart, kept off the #1 spot by George Michael's "One More Try". In fact, the 1988 version that was a pop hit was a dance-oriented remix to begin with, compared to what was on her 1987 "Everlasting" album. [ [http://www.discogs.com/release/505462 Natalie Cole - Pink Cadillac (Motorway Mixes) ] ] . However when Cole's 2001 "Greatest Hits, Vol. 1" album was released, the original "Everlasting" version of "Pink Cadillac" was the one chosen, to the disappointment of many reviewers. [ [http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?z=y&EAN=075596258227 Barnes & Noble.com - Music: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1, Natalie Cole, CD ] ]

In 2001, AOL would not let users quote this in a Springsteen discussion group because they felt the lyrics were too suggestive. One of the offending lines was "My love is bigger than a Honda, yeah it's bigger than a Subaru." [ [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1059 Pink Cadillac by Bruce Springsteen Songfacts ] ]

In 2006, Bruce Springsteen was featured on a recording of "Pink Cadillac" by Jerry Lee Lewis on his album "Last Man Standing".

Track listings

7-inch single

12-inch single

# Pink Cadillac (Club vocal) — 7:36
# I Wanna Be That Woman (12" Version) — 5:20
# Pink Cadillac (7" Version) - 4:12

A variety of other 12-inch remixes were also released, all done by David Cole and Robert Clivillés of C+C Music Factory. She also released a UK-only "Motorway Mixes" of "Pink Cadillac" combined with her earlier hit "Jump Start".

Live performance history

"Pink Cadillac" was frequently played on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's landmark 1984-1985 Born in the U.S.A. Tour. It was used as a second-set comic relief number, elongated to include a low-budget skit involving Springsteen as a Jimmy Swaggert-style televangelist, alternating with a sleazy used-car dealer, describing the history of "the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health", using a wheeled-out blackboard to locate the Garden of Eden, first in Mesopotamia, but later discovered to actually be "ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike." The story of Adam and Eve was altered to include their heretofore unknown exit strategy: "But right here on this back lot — for $9995 and no money down — I've got their getaway car. And if you've got "the nerve to ride!" son, I've got the keys ... to the first ... pink Cadillac!" Since that tour, however, "Pink Cadillac" essentially disappeared from the Springsteen repertoire, being performed only half a dozen times.

By the 2000s, Natalie Cole sometimes dropped the song from her concert set list as well [ [http://www.concertlivewire.com/natalie1.htm Natalie Cole concert review, Paramount Theatre, Aurora, IL Nov. 20, 2005 ] ] and at other times combined the song with lyrics from Aretha Franklin's 1985 hit "Freeway of Love". [ [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003121132 Natalie Cole ] ] .

Originally released on the album "Killbilly Hill" and again on their greatest hits album, 1980s country/rock band, Southern Pacific has a live recording of "Pink Cadillac".

Not to be confused with ...

This is a different "Pink Cadillac" from the 1950s rockabilly "Pink Cadillac" by Sammy Masters.

The Natalie Cole recording of "Pink Cadillac" is sometimes confused with Aretha Franklin's 1985 hit "Freeway of Love", which was not written by Springsteen but did feature a prominent saxophone part by Springsteen sideman Clarence Clemons.

References

Further reading

* Marsh, Dave. "Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s". Pantheon Books, 1987. ISBN 0-394-54668-7.
* [http://www.brucebase.org.uk/8.htm Bruce-base recording sessions history]
* [http://www.brucespringsteen.it/DB/Databasex.htm Killing Floor song performance database]