Songfacts®:

• This song finds Springsteen telling his lover that he's willing to stick it out and be there for her - he's tougher than the rest of the guys she's used to. It's a romantic song that embodies the Tunnel Of Love album, which Bruce describes as his first album of love songs.
• When performed live, "Tougher Than The Rest" is a showcase song for Patti Scialfa, a member of Springsteen's E Street Band who comes to the front of the stage to sing it with him. This can be seen in the music video for the song, which is mostly comprised of concert footage.
  
  Springsteen and Scialfa have a clear connection on stage, and that spark was very real. But at the time, Bruce was married to his first wife, Julianne Phillips, which must have been rather awkward. Scialfa joined Springsteen's E Street Band in 1984, and a year later he married Phillips. When he worked on the Tunnel Of Love album, their marriage was in trouble. They split in 1988 and finalized their divorce in 1989.
  
  Scialfa and Springsteen had their first child together in 1990 and married in 1991. In later years, Bruce would often introduce this song with kind words about Patti before bringing her to the front of the stage. The song may or may not have been influenced by Scialfa when Springsteen wrote it, but after they connected, he clearly considered it to be for her.
• The song was released as a single throughout Europe and did very well in the UK, where it reached #13, It wasn't issued as a single in America.
• The Tunnel Of Love album was mainly a Springsteen solo effort, recorded in his home studio in Rumson, New Jersey with some songs getting overdubbed later by members of the E Street Band. On "Tougher Than The Rest," Danny Federici played the organ and Max Weinberg added percussion, but Springsteen played the other instruments.
  
  Two years after the album was released, Springsteen broke up the E Street Band and started working with other musicians. His next albums, Human Touch and Lucky Town, were released on the same day in 1992, and his touring group was mostly folks who didn't play on the albums. Springsteen settled into fatherhood around this time - his third child was born in 1995. In 1999, he reunited the E Street Band and resumed a regular schedule of touring. "Tougher Than The Rest" remained a popular live selection.
• Emmylou Harris covered the song in 1990. The UK group Everything But The Girl covered it in 1992, and Country singer Chris LeDoux recorded it for his 1994 album Haywire.
• Along with the Tunnel Of Love track "Brilliant Disguise," "Tougher Than The Rest" was in the setlist for Springsteen On Broadway, which started in 2017. Springsteen played these shows solo with the exception of the two songs, where he was joined by Scialfa.