Produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt, and Chuck Plotkin, the album was recorded in New York City with the E Street Band over two years between January 1982 and March 1984.

[8][9] Using a four-track tape recorder purchased by his guitar technician Mike Batlan, Springsteen demoed tracks he had written during that period in the bedroom of his Colts Neck home between December 17, 1981, and January 3, 1982.

[12] Springsteen intended to rerecord the Colts Neck demos with the E Street Band – Roy Bittan (piano), Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (organ), Garry Tallent (bass), Steven Van Zandt (guitar), and Max Weinberg (drums) – during sessions booked to begin in April 1982 at the Power Station in New York City,[15] where The River (1980) had been recorded.

[15][24] Production was handled by Springsteen, Landau, Van Zandt, and The River's mixer Chuck Plotkin, while Toby Scott returned from the Hit Factory sessions as engineer.

[25] The band spent two weeks attempting full-band arrangements of the Colts Neck tracks, including "Nebraska", "Johnny 99", and "Mansion on the Hill", but Springsteen and his co-producers were dissatisfied with the recordings.

[53] Songs demoed from January to April 1983 included "Shut Out the Light", "Johnny Bye-Bye", "Cynthia", "Unsatisfied Heart", "Sugarland", "The Klansman", "My Hometown", "Delivery Man", and "Follow That Dream", a reworking of the 1962 Elvis Presley single of the same name.

[25] These sessions featured re-recordings of solo material Springsteen had recently demoed ("Cynthia" and "My Hometown"), as well as work on other tracks such as "Pink Cadillac", "Car Wash", "TV Movie", "Stand on It", and "County Fair".

[71] At the end of July, Springsteen asked Plotkin to develop a rough mix of the album that included "Born in the U.S.A.", "Glory Days", "My Hometown", "Downbound Train", "Follow That Dream", "Shut Out the Light", "My Love Will Not Let You Down", and "Sugarland".

[95][105] The author Geoffrey Himes has written that the album was unified by "pop pleasure"; songs such as "Born in the U.S.A.", "Glory Days", "Dancing in the Dark", "I'm Goin' Down", and "I'm on Fire" were earworms, featuring melodies and rhythms that "resonated with emotions as basic as lust, loneliness, anger, and yearning and gave them shape".

[102][103] The author Peter Ames Carlin has written that Born in the U.S.A. "filtered the dystopian gloom of the Nebraska songs into the living world of love, work, and the hobbled pursuit of happiness.

[109] Like Ruhlmann, on Born in the U.S.A. other critics have likewise heard humor,[96][98][105][110] or optimism: for Consequence of Sound's Gabriel Fine, the album seems to argue that "one can both love America and rage against its brokenness".

[113] AllMusic's Mike DeGayne argued that while the song would have been effective as an acoustic ballad, similar to "My Hometown" or Nebraska's "Atlantic City", "it's the fervor and the might of Springsteen in front of a bombastic array of guitar and drums that help to drive his message home".

[139] Based on Springsteen's personal experiences in his own hometown growing up in the 1960s,[138] the song returns to the social issues present throughout the album's first side, with themes centered on working-class life, racial tensions, violence, and economic strife.

[141][172] Sodomsky later wrote: "MTV had evolved into a legitimate arm of the music industry, and Springsteen's new look [muscular with a bandana] helped him gain traction in an image-centric medium.

It transitions to a performance of the song at a club with the E Street Band, featuring both Steven Van Zandt and his replacement guitarist Nils Lofgren, alongside new backing vocalist Patti Scialfa.

[102][199] Writing for Shreveport, Louisiana's The Times, Marshall Fine wrote: "It's a superb effort, an album of rich musical and lyrical textures that can only enhance Springsteen's reputation as a rock 'n' roll original.

[105] Cash Box anticipated Born in the U.S.A. would find success on album-oriented rock radio due to Springsteen's "special" ability to convey the lyrical messages of every song.

[202] Saturday Review's John Swenson commended Springsteen for "championing traditional rock values at a time when few newer bands show interest in such a direction",[197] while Robert Christgau of The Village Voice praised his evolution as an artist.

Several reviewers criticized the use of similar lyrical themes as prior albums;[134][198][203][204] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post wrote: "The problem is that Springsteen's taken us down these mean sidestreets and through these badlands all too often since 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town.

[211] The lineup included returning members Bittan, Clemons, Tallent, Federici, Weinberg;[147] Nils Lofgren, who replaced Van Zandt as a second guitarist;[211] and Patti Scialfa, who was hired by Springsteen as a backing vocalist four days before the tour began.

[212][213] Springsteen reworked his image to be "highly masculinized" for the tour; he wore sleeveless shirts to show off his new muscular physique, was clean-shaven, and held his curly hair up with a bandana.

[222] Springsteen was also compared to the Sylvester Stallone character John Rambo in an opinion piece by the Chicago Tribune's Paul Galloway, published in August 1985, who argued the two muscle-bounded figures positively represented America's strength.

[151][224] The tour continued from late March to July around the world with shows in Australia, Japan, Europe, and the U.K.[208] Springsteen married his first wife Julianne Phillips in May,[225] between the Oceania and European legs.

[82][228] Springsteen and the E Street Band performed the full Born in the U.S.A. album during a show at the Hard Rock Calling Festival in London at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on June 30, 2013.

[229] Born in the U.S.A. made Springsteen a superstar[104][230] and brought him his largest amount of success to date as a recording and performing artist,[231] touching off a wave of what the author Chris Smith termed "Bossmania".

[232] Although he had been a well-known star before its release, Larry Rodgers wrote in The Arizona Republic that "it was not until he hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in [the] cover photo for Born in the U.S.A. that he became an American pop icon".

[233] The author Bryan K. Garman suggested that this new image helped Springsteen popularize his persona on a new scale, while tying him to certain political and socio-cultural issues, at a time when Ronald Reagan was promoting prosperity and U.S. global influence "within a decidedly masculine framework".

[98] According to Kirkpatrick, the album's legacy is complicated for longtime fans due to its large success and Springsteen's public image of "muscular patriotism" that surrounded its release and accompanying tour.

"[99] Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph stated: "Born in the U.S.A. remains the most tightly honed of Springsteen's albums," one that unifies the "two disparate strands of The River" and "comes up with something that manages to be both angry and celebratory, often in the same song".

[277][278] On June 14, 2024, Sony Music reissued the album again on translucent red vinyl, featuring a booklet with new sleeve notes by Springsteen's archivist Erik Flannigan and a lithograph to mark its 40th anniversary.