The Meaning Behind Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa’s End Credit Song “Addicted to Romance”

Director Rebecca Miller had already used Bruce Springsteen‘s 1984 hit “Dancing in the Dark” for her 2015 film Maggie’s Plan. As Miller was working on her 2023 romantic comedy, She Came to Me, starring Marisa Tomei, Peter Dinklage, and Anne Hathaway, she returned to Springsteen and asked him to write an original.

Though Miller had an on-screen past with Springsteen, the idea to connect with him for She Came to Me was initiated by The National‘s Bryce Dessner, who was composing the music for the film, along with its two featured operas.

A “Character in a Springsteen Song”

The film follows the story of composer (Dinklage) Steven Lauddem, who is unable to finish the score for an opera. When his wife, played by Hathaway, searches for outside inspiration to combat his writer’s block, he eventually meets Tomei’s character, the free-spirited Katrina.

For the song, Dessner was thinking of Tomei’s character Katrina as “a muse and this gutsy character,” he said. “She’s a miraculous, amazing and powerful woman. She just felt like she could be a character from a Springsteen song.”

When they approached Springsteen he loved the idea and film. In the opera that Dinklage’s character is composing, there’s a line, addicted to romance, which served as the starting point for Springsteen to write the song.

The Meaning

Produced by Dessner and Springsteen, “Addicted to Romance” is a piano ballad that follows the happenstance meeting and connection of two people. Backed by French pianist Katia Labèque, Springsteen and Scialfa delicately sing through the duet.

There’s whiskey and it’s water
And it’s one last dance
Stranger, pump that jukebox with your quarters
We all deserve a second chance
Darling, let me tell you your future
Slip your palm into my hands

You got me addicted to romance

Neon lights on the corner
The rumble of a tired rock and roll band
You’re this neighborhood’s broken daughter
With all the blessings that it grants
I’ll tell you ’bout this dream I had
If you tell me of your plans

“Addicted to Romance” would end up playing during the end credits of the film.

“He writes this second opera, and that gives a window into the creative process of how you come up with an idea, how you see a character,” said Dessner. “There was a melodic feeling about it. It needed to feel like the ending of an opera and the film, which is then followed by Bruce’s song.”

Photo: Brian Ach/Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation