#1416: Southside Johnny And The Jukes

80s Snapshot:

• Number of songs on Hot 100: 1
• Highest peak position: 98
• Cumulative weeks on Hot 100: 5

Asbury Park, New Jersey is a small town on the Jersey Shore, with a population just a touch over 15,000. For most towns that size, it wouldn’t take too much to become the best known band associated from there. But when existing in the shadow of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (arguably the biggest American band ever), Southside Johnny and the (Asbury) Jukes had to settle for second place.

As the Jersey Shore music scene was taking shape in the early 70s, “Southside” Johnny Lyon played in a variety of bands with Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt. Springsteen of course rose from local hero to national icon over the course of his first 3 albums: 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, plus 1975’s Born To Run.

Also in 1975, Lyon and Van Zandt became part of the inaugural lineup of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, working as the house band at The Stone Pony (Asbury Park’s most famous music venue). Just a month after the band’s formation, Van Zandt joined Springsteen’s E Street Band for the Born To Run Tour and would quickly become one Springsteen’s right-hand man on stage.

But camaraderie in the Jersey Shore music scene was strong, and Van Zandt would continue to help Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes get off the ground; he produced the band’s first three albums and wrote the majority of the tracks (Springsteen wrote several of the band’s early songs as well). The Asbury Jukes proved a worthy companion to Springsteen’s style, with a blend of upbeat rock, an ever-present horn section reminiscent of Stax’s trademark sound and Southside Johnny’s Randy Newman-esque lead vocals.

After heavy contributions to I Don’t Want To Go Home (1976), This Time It’s For Real (1977) and Hearts Of Stone (1978), Van Zandt parted ways with the Asbury Jukes, working full-time with the E Street Band and eventually having a solo career of his own (which we will see later on in this project). The band’s first album without any contributions from Springsteen or Van Zandt was 1979’s The Jukes, which unexpectedly broke them through to the Hot 100 for the first time. “I’m So Anxious” was released as a single from the album and reached #71 on the charts in October 1979.

After 1980’s Love Is A Sacrifce failed to earn much notice, the band experimented with dropping “Asbury” from its name, recording their next three albums as simply Southside Johnny and the Jukes. 1983’s Trash It Up saw its title track bubble under the Hot 100 at #108, while “New Romeo” from 1984’s In The Heat peaked at #103, also narrowly missing the Hot 100.

The third and final album as Southside Johnny and the Jukes was 1986’s At Least We Got Shoes. Their cover of the 60’s classic “Walk Away Renee” (a Top-40 hit for both The Left Banke and The Four Tops) was released as a single and finally broke them back onto the Hot 100. It debuted at #98 on the 8/16/1986 chart, spent a second week at that peak position, and ultimately enjoyed a 5-week run on the chart.

Southside Johnny had an unsuccessful solo album in 1988 with the Jukes-less Slow Dance, but reunited the Jersey Shore scene a few years later with 1991’s Better Days. In addition to being the first album in over a decade credited to “Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes”, the album also saw Steven Van Zandt return to writing and producing for the group. Bruce Springsteen also contributed to the album, as did Jon Bon Jovi, another New Jersey music icon who had opened for the Jukes in the earliest years of his eventual rise to superstardom.

While Better Days was not a major commercial success, it underscored just how tight-knit the Jersey Shore music community is. Over the years, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes had over 60 members, many of whom also played regularly with Springsteen and the E Street Band (including Van Zandt and Springsteen’s future wife Patti Scialfa). While the Jukes never quite made the leap from local icons to national stars, the band enjoyed a close relationship with Springsteen and performed continuously until Southside Johnny announced his retirement from performance in late 2024.

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