Rick Springfield

About Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield spent his childhood bouncing between Australia, England, and the United States thanks to his father's military career, which probably explains why he never seemed entirely locked into any one identity. He picked up guitar as a teenager in Australia and joined a string of bands before landing in Zoot, a pop group that had actual hits in Australia in the late sixties. They wore matching outfits. He has since tried to forget this.

The solo career started in 1971 when he decided Zoot wasn't going anywhere interesting. He moved to the United States and signed with Capitol Records, which led to "Speak to the Sky" becoming a minor hit in 1972. Then nothing much happened for nearly a decade. He acted in bit parts, worked on his songwriting, and generally wondered if he'd made a terrible mistake leaving a successful band in Australia to become nobody in America.

Everything changed in 1981 with "Working Class Dog," the album that made him unavoidable. "Jessie's Girl" went to number one and won him a Grammy, which must have felt vindicating after years of near-obscurity. The song is about wanting someone else's girlfriend and it's been stuck in rotation on classic rock radio ever since. The album also had "I've Done Everything for You," which Sammy Hagar wrote, a fact that occasionally surprises people.

Around the same time, he landed the role of Dr. Noah Drake on "General Hospital," which turned him into a proper teen idol. The acting and music careers fed each other in ways that probably shouldn't have worked but did. "Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet" and "Don't Talk to Strangers" kept him on the charts through the early eighties.

He released "Living in Oz" in 1983, which gave him another major hit with "Affair of the Heart." The videos got heavy MTV rotation back when that actually meant something. "Hard to Hold" came out in 1984 as a soundtrack to a film he starred in that nobody remembers fondly, but "Love Somebody" became another hit anyway.

The late eighties were less kind commercially, though he kept releasing albums and touring. He's been candid about depression and difficult periods in interviews, which makes the upbeat surface of his eighties hits feel more complicated in retrospect.

He never really went away. He's continued releasing albums every few years, with "The Snake King" in 2018 being a recent example. He still tours regularly, playing theaters and festivals where people absolutely want to hear "Jessie's Girl" and he seems fine with that. He's written an autobiography, acted in "Californication" and other shows, and generally maintained a career on his own terms. Not many eighties pop stars managed that without either burning out or becoming nostalgia acts. Springfield just kept working.

Springfield's shows are surprisingly energetic for someone in their 70s. Crowds sing every word to Jessie's Girl and the deep cuts, creating this mix of nostalgia and actual engagement. He's personable between songs, not trying too hard, which somehow makes it work.

Known for Jessie's Girl, I've Done Everything for You, Don't Talk to Strangers, Human Touch, Souls

See Rick Springfield Live