Studio version
A-one, a-two, a-one two three
Black Mellon Road on a dark mellow night
Two cars pulling up ahead on my right
Going up the highway, gonna see my Betty Jean
She got eyes like a jack rabbit, staring dead at my beams
Well over in the woods in a hail door light
Two Red Hills boys in a bare-knuckle fight
Stretched out on the hood of my GTO
She's filing her nails, shouting, "Go Bobby, go!"
Betty Jean, Betty Jean
Betty Jean, Betty Jean, Betty Jean, Betty Jean
Honey you're cute but you sure are mean
Oh Betty Jean
Well she jumped in my car, we started driving around
She turned that radio dial, threw her head back and sound
Going up the highway, she was giving me it
She put her hand on my leg, I drove us in a drainage ditch
Betty Jean, Betty Jean
Betty Jean, Betty Jean, Betty Jean, Betty Jean
Honey you're cute but you sure are mean
Oh Betty Jean
Yeah boom bop boom diddy diddy bop bop
Boom bop boom diddy diddy boom diddy bop bop
Boom bop boom diddy diddy boom diddy bop bop
Boom bop boom diddy diddy bop bop
Next thing I knew, I was running through the crowd
I swore her my love forever, she was laughing out loud
We were married in the spring out on 531
Had fifteen kids and I hate every single one
Betty Jean, Betty Jean
Betty Jean, Betty Jean, Betty Jean, Betty Jean
Honey you're cute but you sure are mean
Oh Betty Jean
Oh Betty Jean
Oh Betty Jean
Oh Betty Jean [fades]
BETTY JEAN is an unreleased Bruce Springsteen song. The above lyrics are for the only known take of the song.
In his 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Clinton Heylin wrote: "Unfortunately, Alan Vega had already released his own rockabilly album and Bruce could think of no one to whom he could donate this song."
The line "She got eyes like a jack rabbit, staring dead at my beams" appears in another outtake from the same period, DELIVERY MAN [Take #2].
Not to be confused with the Chuck Berry song BETTY JEAN that Bruce Springsteen covered live.
According to Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, BETTY JEAN was recorded on 20 Jan 1983 at Thrill Hill West, Springsteen's home studio in Los Angeles, CA. One take of BETTY JEAN is in circulation among collectors, and most probably it is one that was cut on that date. The above lyrics are transcribed from that circulating studio version of BETTY JEAN. Springsteen recorded more than an album's worth of songs by himself during this period. He played all the instruments himself, with the help of a drum machine only, and overdubbing to create the final product.
This version of BETTY JEAN can be found on several bootlegs, including The Lost Masters Vol. 16 (Labour Of Love) and The Lost Masters Essential Collection Vol. 2 (Labour Of Love).
As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed BETTY JEAN live.
As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's BETTY JEAN.
List of available versions of BETTY JEAN on this website:
BETTY JEAN [Studio version]
