36 Years After Courteney Cox Danced in the Dark with Bruce Springsteen

Steve Matoren
9 min readJun 30, 2020

by Steve Matoren

(If I can ever convince Bruce to lend me the keys to the universe, I’m going to turn this article into a documentary film)

As Richie ‘Whitey’ Ashburn, the former legendary Philadelphia Phillies player and broadcaster used to often say to the late Harry Kalas, his Hall of Fame broadcast partner in the booth, “Hard to believe, Harry” that it’s been 36 years since The Boss pulled “that” Courteney Cox up on stage to dance with him. June 29, 1984 to be exact. At the time, not many knew she was a planted actress just playing another role. Not even Bruce himself was aware Miss Cox was a ‘fake’ fan. None of that mattered. Springsteen nailed his biggest hit and Cox jump-started her Hollywood career.

Since then, countless others have taken their shot at sparking a fire and dancing in the dark, including John Legend, Taylor Swift, Eric Church, Tina Turner, Amy MacDonald, Morgan James, Sam Fender, James Blunt, The Struts, Tegan and Sara, Kermit the Frog, Adam Sandler and The Young@Heart Chorus of spry 80 year olds.

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Steve Matoren

Jersey boy. Bruce Springsteen is my only Boss. I'd drive all night just to...