50 years ago, Bob Seger released ‘Night Moves’. It turned a regional hero into a rock superstar

Bob Seger’s 1976 album *Night Moves* propelled him from a Midwestern regional favourite to rock stardom, after years of building his career. Its success mattered because it showed how his established roots-rock style and reflections on growing older could reach a much wider audience.

Seger wrote the title track over about six months, drawing on memories of adolescence and influences including the film *American Graffiti* and Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland”. The album also includes “Mainstreet” and “Rock and Roll Never Forgets”, blending folk-style storytelling with harder-edged rock. Seger had first scored a major hit in 1969 with “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”, featuring Glenn Frey.