Sept. 23: “The Boss,” Bruce Springsteen is 61 today.

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen nicknamed "The Boss", is widely known for his brand of heartland rock often based on his native New Jersey, where he still lives.

He has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award, and continues to have a strong global fan base. He has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 120 million worldwide. He was a 2009 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and in the same year Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100.

Bruce, along with the E Street Band - his wife Patti Scialfa is a member-  is known for putting on electrifying live performances that usually last at least three hours. His most successful albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., focused on the struggles of daily American life.

Springsteen has been involved with many bands during his career, most notably The E Street Band. Prior to signing his first record deal in 1972, Springsteen was a member of the band Steel Mill. In October 1972 he formed a new band for the recording of his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., which became known as The E Street Band, although the name was not officially introduced until September 1974.

The E Street Band performed on all of Springsteen's recorded works from his debut until the 1982's Nebraska, a solo album on which Springsteen himself played all the instruments.

The full band returned for the next album Born in the USA, but there then followed a period from 1988 to 1999 in which albums were recorded with session musicians. The E Street band were briefly reunited in 1995 for new contributions to the Greatest Hits compilation, and on a more permanent basis from 1999.

In 2009, Springsteen performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States.”

In October, 2009, Bruce Springsteen was among the headline acts of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary benefit concert along with artists like U2, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin.

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