Despite the fact that his nickname is literally "The Boss," even Bruce Springsteen deals with rejection from time to time. Case in point, back in 2001, he wrote and recorded a song for Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone -- presumably because he mistakenly thought Harry Potter was a grizzled New Jersey stevedore. While Springsteen could have just rewritten one of his old tunes to be more Potter-like (think "Dancing In The Dark Mark" or "Born To Ron"), instead he penned an original number called "I'll Stand by You Always." He then offered it to the film's producers, who said ... no.

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While Springsteen himself was a Potter fan who wrote the song after reading the books to his son, J.K. Rowling reportedly had a clause in her contract forbidding the use of "commercial songs" in the films. (This explains why Dumbledore never invited Smash Mouth to Hogwarts.) So Springsteen's ballad about underage wizardry was scrapped. Until now.

The upcoming Springsteen-inspired movie Blinded By The Light will apparently feature "I'll Stand by You Always" in the credits. This shouldn't be too weird a fit, considering that the song doesn't contain any references to Quidditch or butterbeer, and it's hard as hell to find a good rhyme for "Voldemort." If the version that has leaked online is authentic, Springsteen's lyrics are actually pretty generic. It seems to mostly be about Springsteen comforting his crying son at night -- probably because he had a bunch of crazy nightmares after an evening of reading about witchcraft.

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The closest Bruce comes to referencing the actual stories is when he sings "Here the ghosts and the goblins can rise from your dreams to steal your heart away." Which is kind of confusing. Is he implying that Nearly Headless Nick and the employees of the local bank are somehow the most notable characters in the Potterverse? At least we'll finally have an official version of this pop culture curio to scrutinize. And until Tom Waits reveals that he secretly wrote a song about Narnia, it will have to do.

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