One of the great things about popular music is that a guy like Rick Springfield, someone who is hardly a threat to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, can come up with a single that can stand beside just about any other great single of the rock era.
Young actors recording pop songs is a tradition that goes back forever, or at least as far as Ricky Nelson. But for every young good looking actor with genuine musical talent like Nelson, you've got David Soul and John Travolta to remind us that, if God had meant them to sing, he/she wouldn't have given them the ability to act. I'd throw Bobby Sherman in there for good measure, but I'm not sure he could act either.
Springfield was no Ricky Nelson, but he does have genuine chops, as evidenced by the fact that he is still hitting the circuit and drawing a good number of fans. And he did come up with "Jessie's Girl," which is just a great, great song, pure and simple. Sounded good then, sounds good today, and will probably sound good 30 years from now.
"Jessie's Girl," Rick Springfield, from the summer of 1981.
2 comments:
Interesting facts to add to your information. Rick Springfield was 32 when he released Jessie's girl. At that point, he had already served in Vietnam and had been a musician for many years. He even performed on Sonny and Cher. The General Hospital thing just happened around the same time but was not really related to him having a hit song.
And if you have never listened to the entire Working Class Dog album, you should. It is really good. And so is Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet.
His first solo album was released in 1972. His first band was named Zoot and it looks like they released an album in 1968.
But I don't really know much about Rick at all.
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