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Bruce Springsteen
Born to write … Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography was published this week. Photograph: MediaPunch/Rex/Shutterstock
Born to write … Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography was published this week. Photograph: MediaPunch/Rex/Shutterstock

From Springsteen to Dylan, who is the boss of the rock biographies?

This article is more than 7 years old

New Jersey’s most famous musical son has had at least 41 books written about him – but that’s nowhere near enough to put him at the top of the chart

The release of Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography this week caused a predictable stir among fans, some of who queued for hours to meet the Boss as he began his book tour.

But the book, titled Born to Run, is far from the only work about the rock star. The British Library lists 41 titles with Springsteen as their subject matter, from biographies and photographic collections to Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy.

But, while impressive, the number of books about Springsteen is small compared to some other solo artists who have been inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We worked this out by counting every title that lists a given rock star as its subject. The undisputed victor, unsurprisingly, is Bob Dylan, with 138 – three times as many as Springsteen.

John Lennon comes next with 98 titles, Elvis Presley ranks third with 97, while Michael Jackson and Bob Marley round out the top five.

The Beatles (as so often is the case) deserve special mention: the group was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1988, but all four individual members were later inducted individually.

The British Library has 54 books about Paul McCartney, George Harrison is the subject of 19, while Ringo Starr has five books listed against his name.

Madonna is the only female artists that ranks in the top 10 with 53 titles about her – a dozen more than Springsteen.

pop and rock stars who have inspired the most books

More on this story

More on this story

  • Bruce Springsteen: ‘You can change a life in three minutes with the right song’

  • Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen – review

  • Bruce Springsteen confirms Harry Potter producers rejected his ballad

  • Bruce Springsteen – the unreleased tracks from Chapter and Verse reviewed

  • From Bruce Springsteen to Tyson Fury, men are opening up about depression

  • Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run races to top of book charts

  • Bruce Springsteen fans line up for the Boss book signing: 'I'd wait for a week'

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