Official studio version
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh, ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh, ooh ooh
You wake me in the night to your tears falling down, come let me dry them for you
I wish I could tell a story, chase away all those ghosts you've got inside of you
A story of heroes that fight on at any cost of a kingdom of love to be won or lost
We'll fight here together 'til victory is won, come take my hand 'til the morning comes
Just close your eyes
I'll stand by you always, always, always
I'll stand by you always, always, always
I know here in the dark tomorrow can seem so very far away
Here the ghosts and the goblins can rise from your dreams to steal your heart away
Together we'll chase those thieves that won't leave you alone out from under the bed, out from over our home
And when the light comes we'll laugh my love at the things that the night had us so frightened of
And until then
I'll stand by you always, always, always
I'll stand by you always, always, always
(I'll stand by you always, ooh ooh, ooh ooh)
I'll stand by you always
Now I know it can feel like you're slipping away, at night you'll get lost in that deep dark place
We'll let the night come and do what it may, together we'll find the courage, we'll find faith
Until you awake
I'll stand by you always, always, always
I'll stand by you always, always, always
(I'll stand by you always, ooh ooh, ooh ooh)
I'll stand by you always
I'll stand by you always, always, always
I'll stand by you always, always...
[Fades out]
I'LL STAND BY YOU is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and first released on the soundtrack album for the 2019 movie Blinded by The Light. The above lyrics are for Bruce Springsteen's official studio version of I'LL STAND BY YOU as released in 2019.
This song was copyrighted under the title "I'll stand by you always" (see the "Studio Recording" section below) and was titled "Song For Harry Potter" on a Columbia Records in-house promo CD-R (see the original studio version for more details). However, this website uses the title "I'll Stand By You" as per the above-mentioned soundtrack album's track list.
The official studio version of I'LL STAND BY YOU was included on the Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- compilation album.
Bruce Springsteen wrote I'LL STAND BY YOU sometime between 1998 and 2000. He was inspired by Harry Potter books that he was reading to his children at the time. Sometime in early 2001, during post-production on the first Potter movie, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, Springsteen made the song available to director Chris Columbus. However, the song was ultimately rejected. At the time it was reported that this was due to Harry Potter novelist/creator JK Rowling's contractual stipulation that no commercial songs of any type be used in the Harry Potter film series. Warner Bros Music President Gary LeMel, who was involved in the Potter music, was asked by USA Today about the Springsteen song but said he preferred not to comment publicly. In doing so, he seemingly verified the basic truth in the story.
In an October 2016 interview on BBC Radio 2, Simon Mayo read a listener's question to Bruce Springsteen asking if it was true that he once wrote a song for a Harry Potter film called "I'll Stand By You Always." Springsteen confirmed that that he did and that the song wasn't eventually used, but he didn't explain why. He added: "It was pretty good, it was a song I wrote for my eldest son, it was a big ballad that was very uncharacteristic of something I'd sing myself. But it was something that I thought would have fit lovely. At some point I'd like to get it into a children's movie of some sort because it was a pretty lovely song."
In a November 2016 interview with Uproxx, David Heyman, who's the main producer of the Harry Potter film series, praised the song, but said that it was rejected because they had to do "what's right for the film." He revealed that director Chris Columbus "labored over it and then wrote a 12-page letter explaining and apologizing for not including it, because it was completely unsolicited. [Springsteen] just delivered this song. We didn't go to Bruce first, he just delivered it. But you know, it just didn't feel right to have a song."
A few days later, after reading about the David Heyman interview with Uproxx on Backstreets.com, director Chris Columbus wrote to the website to clarify a few details. First he explained that he was a huge Springsteen fan and he credited Darkness On The Edge Of Town for inspiring him to become a screenwriter and kicking off his career. "I never forgot that. As I spent the next decades working in the film industry, and seeing a hundred-plus Bruce shows, I wrote, directed, and produced countless films where I wanted to use Bruce's music. But we usually didn't have the budget, or we were turned down by the record company."
During post-production on Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, Columbus got a call from an executive at Warner Bros. telling him that Springsteen wrote a song for the film. "My fucking heart leaped into my throat," Columbus wrote. "Here was my chance, my opportunity to finally have a Bruce song in one of my films." The following day a CD of the song arrived at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, England. Columbus listened to it in his office, alone. "My first reaction was sheer joy. 'I'll Stand By You' was one of the most beautiful songs I had ever heard, one the most elegant and emotional songs that Bruce had ever written." He listened to it over and over and played at home it for his wife and kids. "I went to sleep that night thinking, 'My dream has finally come true.'"
The next day, the song was synched up with the film's final credits, but there was one issue. As Columbus explained, "the first 130 minutes of the first Harry Potter film were intensely, deeply British. Every single actor who appeared in the film was British. [...] The sets were historically British. And John Williams' roaring score was also, in its heart, extraordinarily British." Springsteen's song, however, "slightly shifted the mood of the film from England to back across the pond. Back to America. It would be the first time in our film where we would not hear a British voice."
Another problem was that composer John Williams had already written a full eight minutes of an orchestral piece to end the film. "I would have to face the Maestro and tell him that I was planning to cut his eight-minute symphony. This certainly would have sent John running for the hills, ending our working relationship forever. Had I done that, John would definitely not have scored the subsequent two Potter films." Columbus was devastated. "I'd waited over 25 years for a Bruce song. And finally, I received one of the best songs he'd ever written. And I couldn't use it."
Columbus was very upset. The only choice he was left with was to write to Springsteen explaining what happened. "So I started writing... and writing... and twelve pages later, I finished what was part apology, part explanation, part historical journey of my own personal relationship with Bruce and his music." Springsteen wrote back a few weeks later saying that he understood the situation. "As you would expect with Bruce, he was incredibly gracious and understanding and made me feel a whole lot better with one line: 'You gotta do what's right for your movie.'" Over the following years, Columbus met Springsteen several times, but they never discussed the song. "But deep in my heart, I feel I still owe him one. I still feel I owe him something, for setting me on a path that led to my beautiful career, and for giving me a future."
I'LL STAND BY YOU was initially recorded on 28 Jan 2001 at Thrill Hill Recording, Springsteen's home studio in Rumson, NJ. A finished recording of the song was filed at the United States Copyright Office on 13 Jun 2001.
Copyright entry:
Type of Work: Music
Registration Number / Date: PAu002604935 / 2001-06-13
Title: I’ll stand by you always.
Description: Sound cassette + lyrics sheet.
Notes: Words & music.
Copyright Claimant: Bruce Springsteen , 1949-
Date of Creation: 2001
Names: Bruce Springsteen , 1949-
All the other songs that Springsteen copyrighted in 2001 and 2002 were released on The Rising, but I'LL STAND BY YOU was not written or recorded for that album, as explained in the previous section.
There were minor media reports/sightings at the time (late-February to late-March 2001) of Springsteen and various members of the E Street Band coming in and out of the Hit Factory in New York City, NY. It was the "Chuck Plotkin / Toby Scott" studio team behind the dials for these Hit Factory sessions, not the soon-to-be-hired "Brendan O'Brien / Nick Didia" team. Some tracks from The Rising are likely candidates that might have been recorded (or attempted) at these early 2001 sessions. There's a small possibility that I'LL STAND BY YOU was cut with the band during these sessions at the Hit Factory, but the versions that surfaced were recorded earlier in January at Thrill Hill Recording, Springsteen's home studio in Rumson, NJ, with Springsteen handling most, if not all, of the instruments.
Three versions of I'LL STAND BY YOU are in circulation. These are (in chronological order):
For the official studio version of I'LL STAND BY YOU, some overdubs and work was done in early 2018 and early 2019. According to Sony's logs, the track was mixed on 19 Feb 2019 at Stone Hill Studio, Springsteen's home studio in Colts Neck, NJ, and was mastered by Bob Ludwig on that same day. "We re-recorded the track in 2018," producer Ron Aniello said. "[Springsteen's] vocal and piano was much earlier. Not sure when." The track was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen and mastered by Bob Ludwig. Aniello is also credited as engineer and mixing engineer, Toby Scott is credited as engineer, and Rob Lebret is credited as engineer and mixing engineer.
Track credits:
Bruce Springsteen: vocals, piano, bass, synth, string samples, orchestral samples, Mellotron, percussion (cabasa, tambourine, shaker)
Patti Scialfa: backing vocals, vocal arrangements
Ron Aniello: drums, bass, string samples, orchestral samples
Soozie Tyrell: background vocals
Lisa Lowell: background vocals
In September or October 2001, Bruce Springsteen donated I'LL STAND BY YOU to Latin/Salsa star (and fellow Sony artist) Marc Anthony who then recorded a cover version of it. Springsteen believed that Anthony was the right singer for the song. "I thought it was very, very generous of him," Anthony told Billboard. "And I think it's the ultimate compliment, when someone like that thinks you're worthy of singing a song he wrote for his son".
In late 2001 both Sony and Anthony issued press releases specifically promoting the Springsteen composition and mentioning it would be one of the tracks on Anthony's forthcoming album Mended (and likely the lead single off the album). When the album was finally released in April 2002, after being pushed back four months to fine-tune the track-list, I'LL STAND BY YOU was not included. A later special edition of Mended with bonus tracks also did not include the song. There has been no explanation as to why the Springsteen composition was omitted from the album and was never later released by Anthony.
A lyric video for I'LL STAND BY YOU was released on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel on 22 Aug 2019. It's a promo clip displaying the song's lyrics over scenes from the movie Blinded by The Light. The video was also included on the Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- compilation album.
Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- is a Bruce Springsteen compilation album released by Sony Music Japan in 2023. The compilation, which was exclusively released in Japan, consists of previously released 35 audio tracks and 62 video tracks. The collection is part of a 26-title reissue campaign to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's debut album. The series, issued in three waves (25 Oct 2023, 22 Nov 2023, and 20 Dec 2023), includes 25 albums originally released between 1973 and 2014 plus a new compilation album that includes all of Springsteen's singles released in Japan from 1975 to 1999. All audio CD's were manufactured using Sony Japan's Blu-spec CD2 format.
Disc 1: (audio CD)
Disc 2: (audio CD)
Disc 3: (DVD)
Disc 4: (DVD)
Bruce Springsteen's official studio version of I'LL STAND BY YOU appears in one movie.
Blinded By The Light is a British comedy-drama film based on the 2007 memoir of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor, Greetings From Bury Park: Race, Religion, Rock 'N' Roll. Manzoor also co-wrote the film's script. Set in 1987-1988 in the British town of Luton, the film tells the coming-of-age story of Javed, a British-Pakistani Muslim teenager who's looking for a way out from poverty and from his conservative family. His desire to become a writer was inflamed when he discovers the music of Springsteen.
Gurinder Chadha is a friend with Sarfraz Manzoor, and a big Springsteen fan too. When Greetings From Bury Park came out, he sent her a copy and she told him, "I'm gonna have to make this into a film. But we can only make it with Bruce's permission. Otherwise, it will never work."
In 2010, Springsteen came to London for the UK premiere of The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town documentary at the London Film Festival. Chadha got an invite and she took Manzoor as her plus-one. As Springsteen made his way down the red carpet, the two friends had their cameras out and stood on each side of the carpet hoping to capture a moment with the star. But Springsteen knew Manzoor, who'd been to 150 Springsteen concerts. Springsteen recognized him, walked to him, and told him, "I read your book, it's beautiful", as Chadha recounted during a Q&A session at the film premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. "I grabbed that moment and said, 'We want to make a film of the book, will you help us?' [...] And he looked at us and said: 'Sounds good. Talk to Jon.' And, of course, with him was Jon Landau, Barbara Carr, Tracy Nurse, who we met that night."
The following day Jon Landau had a picked up a copy of the book. Chadha and Manzoor kept in touch with Tracy Nurse, Senior Vice President for Sony Music International who has been directing global marketing activities for Springsteen. With her support, Chadha and Manzoor were able to talk to Springsteen about the film and make it a reality. "So it's really thanks to Tracy who made it all happen," Chadha said. They started working on the script, and "we knew that we didn't have to please financiers or anybody for this," Chadha said. "The only person we had to please was Bruce. So we sat down and wrote a screenplay for Bruce Springsteen. And we just used the songs as we wanted to use them. And what I had to do was find a way of using the songs as if he'd written the songs for our movie." They sent the script to Springsteen through Tracy Nurse. He read it, and a couple of weeks later they got a message back from Nurse that Springsteen said, "I'm all good with this. Let them do it."
Three years later, when the film was not yet completely but almost finished, Chadha went to New York City to show it Springsteen during a day off in his Springsteen On Broadway concert residency. She said, "Because obviously I couldn't put it out until he's seen it. And I needed to know if he needed to make any changes." They had a little screening in a private room and Springsteen came with John Landau and some friends and works colleagues. And when the screening finished, everyone was waiting for his reaction. Chadha then went out to the front and put the lights on, and as she recounted, "He walked over and gave me a big hug and a kiss and he said, 'Thank you for looking after me so beautifully,' which was like the most amazing thing that I could've, you know, ever expected. And then I said would you like me to change anything, is there anything you want more of or less, and he said, 'Don't change a thing, just leave it, I love it."
Blinded By The Light premiered on 27 Jan 2019 at Sundance Film Festival and was released by Entertainment One in the United Kingdom on 09 Aug 2019 and by Warner Bros. in the United States on 16 Aug 2019. The film uses 16 different Bruce Springsteen songs (18 versions in total) in its soundtrack, listed below in order of appearance. 12 of these were included in the film's soundtrack album.
At least one artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's I'LL STAND BY YOU.
Some of the above info is taken from Brucebase and from a USA Today article.
If you have any corrections or comments, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of I'LL STAND BY YOU on this website:
I'LL STAND BY YOU [Official studio version]
