Janey, Don't You Lose Heart

JANEY, DON'T YOU LOSE HEART - V1a 4:31 UH / GS / MI / 1984AC
JANEY, DON'T YOU LOSE HEART - V1b 3:24 TRACKS / 1985 single / BACK
JANEY DON'T YOU LOSE HEART - V2a uncirculating
JANEY DON'T YOU LOSE HEART - V2b 3:32 TRACKSII

Note: "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" was originally recorded on June 16, 1983 at The Hit Factory, New York, with a melody borrowed from earlier outtakes "Everyday And Every Night" and "Drop On Down And Cover Me". The heavily bootlegged V1a features Steve Van Zandt on background vocals and guitar, and an extended wistful organ coda closes out the track. V1b is the same base recording, except Nils Lofgren's new vocal and guitar parts replace Van Zandt's. Lofgren's overdubs were recorded on July 14, 1985. The organ coda was also removed, reducing the length by over a minute. V1b was released September 7, 1985, as the b-side of "I'm Goin' Down" and then re-released in 1998, on Tracks. On June 16, 1995, the twelve year anniversary of the 1983 recording date, V2 was recorded at Springsteen's home studio in Beverly Hills with a line-up of Bruce, Gary Mallaber (drums), Jim Hanson (bass), Marty Rifkin (pedal steel), Chuck Plotkin (keyboards), and Soozie Tyrell (violin). Both variants were considered for Tracks, but the 1995 recording was dropped in favor of the 1983 cut. The 1995 version was finally released in 2025 on Somewhere North Of Nashville, one of the albums found on Tracks II: The Lost Albums. Some elements of that released version, including Charlie Giordano's piano, were overdubbed later, likely around 2018.

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