To celebrate the upcoming publication of my short story, “The Record Collector,” I’m finally doing the “post an influential album each day for 10 days” thing that several friends challenged me to do.

Every song tells a story. All the stories collectively add up to more than the sum of the parts.

Look.  Born in the USA is a “how to” study in sequencing an album.  Don’t believe me?  Ask Steve Earle.  Really, the question of “best sequenced single album” comes down to this one and Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (assuming you agree the Beatles’ records are brilliant but all have clunker tracks). I listen to the Dylan album more, but it didn’t come out when I was approaching middle school and buying tapes. This one did, and it pretty much defined my musical understanding.

Were it not for a little too much 80s synthesizer and compression, this would be a perfect album. Like its contemporaries, Thriller and Purple Rain, every song could’ve been a hit single and more of them were than not. I’ve tried to collect all the 45s for my jukebox.

Springsteen recorded a lot more good songs than he needed for an album, which means even the B-sides of his singles for this record are excellent. I loved singing “Johnny Bye Bye” (the B-side of the “I’m on Fire” single) when I was still in a band.

Also, Springsteen and the E Street Band iconography—New Jersey, tough-guy camaraderie, weird nicknames—pervaded my middle-school years, particularly the great 80s film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.