Hear Bruce Springsteen's Harry Potter Song 'I'll Stand By You Always'

Bruce Springsteen is a Harry Potter fan. Perhaps the boss isn't a Potterhead, but he enjoyed reading J.K. Rowling's stories to his son, Sam, enough to want to go out of his way and write an original song for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The song, titled "I'll Stand By You Always" (which is definitely the title of a Bruce song), was rejected by Warner Bros. and never released, but after all these years, it's now available for your listening pleasure.

Below, learn more about the Bruce Springsteen Harry Potter song.

While promoting his autobiography "Born to Run" a few months back, Springsteen was asked about the song. "It was pretty good," The Academy Award winner said with a laugh. "It was a song that I wrote for my eldest son. It was a big ballad that was very uncharacteristic of something I'd sing myself, but it was something that I thought would have fit lovely. At some point, I'd like to get it into a children's movie of some sort because it was a pretty lovely song." Apparently, the song didn't end up in the movie because Rowling's contract stipulated no commercial song of any kind could be used in Harry Potter films.

"I'll Stand By You Always" touches quite clearly on the themes of the series. Hypable discovered the song on the Bruce Springsteen torrent site, Jungleland, where bootlegs are posted. You can list to the full song at their site.

For years and years, Springsteen's song and the lyrics went unreleased. He reportedly wrote "I'll Stand By You Always" between 1998 and 2000, before recording the song in 2001 and making it available to director Christopher Columbus. A couple of years after that, Marc Anthony was going to record his own version and include it on his sixth solo album, Mended. When the album came out, the song wasn't on it.

A few people at Warner Bros. were actually holding out hope the song would find its way into a sequel, but it's difficult to imagine "I'll Stand By You Always," as pleasant as it is, fitting the tone of the Harry Potter films, especially after The Sorcerer's Stone. The song is too sweet at times for any of the sequels. Plus, the Harry Potter world is so well realized and transportive that maybe a Springsteen song would've pulled us out of that reality, which John Williams' score helps to create.

Springsteen would've been a part of the franchise's identity. A part of me thinks that's great, but it could've been a distraction. People should walk out of those movies talking about the characters, not the original new song from Springsteen. It's probably for the best the song wasn't in any of the movies, but then again, who knows? Maybe back in 2001, before Rowling's stories became a hit movie franchise, "I'll Stand By You Always" would've naturally fitted The Sorcerer's Stone.