A sad day on E Street

Danny Federici, the organist who was one of the original members of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, died Thursday night at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York where he was being treated for melanoma. He was 58.

Federici hooked up with Bruce in the late 1960s, playing with him in such bands as Child, Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom, before the formation of the very first Bruce Springsteen Band, which later became the E-Street Band.

Although Federici will be associated with playing the organ in E-Street, especially on the hit single "Hungry Heart," my personal favorite moment featuring Federici is when he played the accordion on the recording of "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."