Songfacts®:

• In this song, Bruce Springsteen looks at how violence and neglect have become so common in America that they're simply accepted as part of society. He envisions "Murder Incorporated" as a huge company that profits from taking or destroying lives so others can profit.
  
  "There's a body count incorporated into our way of life," Springsteen explained when introducing the song at the Beacon Theater in 1995. "We've come to accept the expendability of some of our citizens' lives and dreams as just a part of the price of doing business."
• Springsteen recorded this song in 1982 during the sessions for his 1984 Born In The U.S.A. album, but he left it off the track list. He brought it back from the dead in 1995 when he released it on his Greatest Hits album. He started playing it live that year as well, and it quickly became a concert favorite.
• At one point, Murder Incorporated was going to be the title to Springsteen's 1984 album, but he decided on Born In The U.S.A. instead.
• Springsteen took the title from a 1960 movie called Murder, Inc. starring Peter Falk as a crime boss. Springsteen also got the title for his song "Badlands" from a movie.
• When Springsteen finally released "Murder Incorporated" in 1995, his E Street Band, whom he recorded the song with in 1982, was disbanded. Springsteen broke them up in 1989 to give him more flexibility and to venture in another musical direction. In 1992, he released two albums on the same day - Human Touch and Lucky Town. When they didn't sell as well as expected and the subsequent tour didn't sell out, it became clear that fans liked him a lot better with the band.
  
  To promote the Greatest Hits set, Springsteen pulled E Street back together to shoot a music video for "Murder Incorporated" at Tramps in New York City, where they performed together for the first time since 1988. They played the song six times during the shoot so there would be plenty of footage.
  
  Greatest Hits went on to sell over 6 million copies, but the E Street reunion was short lived. Springsteen used other musicians to record his next album, The Ghost Of Tom Joad, released later in 1995 and followed by a solo acoustic tour with "Murder Incorporated" in the setlist. It was his first album that didn't go Platinum. In 1999, he reunited the E Street Band for good.
• The video was directed by Jonathan Demme. Springsteen wrote "Streets Of Philadelphia" for Demme's movie, Philadelphia, a year earlier.