Omer Plays Bass . . . Rick Springfield - Love Somebody (bass cover)

Omer Plays Bass . . . Rick Springfield - Love Somebody (bass cover)
Bass by Mike Seifrit*
*Note credits on the album are unclear. Bass could have been played by Reggie McBride
Bass Used in this Video: Dingwall Guitars Super PJ

Hope you have a look and if you do, don’t forget to click 'Like" and subscribe to the channel

A belated happy 75th birthday to Rick Springfield (August 23, 1949) – and how is that possible? Rick’s career really had three arcs – the late 60’s though the ‘70s, Zoot and early solo period, the massive early ‘80s success with “Jessie’s Girl”, winning a Grammy for best male vocal, through the period to ’85 marked by the soundtrack album and movie “Hard to Hold” with this song ‘Love Somebody’ in ’84 and its followup “TAO”. It was quite a run for Rick in that three or four year period - “Living in Oz” is one of my favorite albums (and with a video for ‘Alyson’ here –    • Omer Plays Bass . . . Rick Springfiel...  ”). And then, Rick continued to put out some great material post that period – with nine plus studio solo albums ‘including “Rock of Life” in ’88 after a break, 1999’s “Karma” and 2008’s “Venus in Overdrive” to name a few, a bunch of other projects and he has maintained a really active tour schedule, documented in the “Affair of the Heart” documentary. And he looks great for 75. Happy birthday Rick.

“Hard to Hold”, released in 1984 as a Rick Springfield movie/soundtrack vehicle, was a (poorly executed?) romance about a rock star who tries to woo a woman he meets after a post gig car accident – so not exactly a stretch for one of the biggest rock stars at the time. And, it wasn’t really a very good movie – it had the pieces, good writer (who had just finished “Flashdance”), a bankable, good looking star who had a lot of heat at the time, rock movies doing big business in ’84 (Purple Rain anyone?) but for whatever reason, the movie just didn’t take off. It did have some great music though, which maybe was more important at the time with soundtracks being big business in the ‘80’s, featuring some good material for Rick, like ‘Love Somebody’ and ‘Bop Till You Drop’, as well as a great track from Peter Gabriel. Interestingly Rick passed on the movie “The Right Stuff” to do ”Hard to Hold”. You can argue that that was a poor decision from an acting career standpoint, Rick regularly comments negatively about the movie which I don’t think is fair – it is what it is which is a lighthearted romcom music movie aimed at the TeenBeat fans that Rick had at the time and that he was chaffing under as he tried to be considered a serious artist, musician and actor, but I bet the tour following the movie did better than what he might have made for acting in it with this track ‘Love Somebody’, charting at #5 on Billboard and a big hit worldwide, a fixture in his live set into today.

As I have done on past videos of a Rick song, with the album credits not clear on who played on each track (two bass credits are listed for the Rick tracks on the soundtrack album), I am giving the benefit of the doubt to Mike Seifrit who was touring and recording with Rick for some time, so it seems likely that he might have played on this track in the studio as most of the touring band did. As always, great guitar playing from Tim Pierce, with a smoking solo, and just a great singalong chorus. Not a particularly difficult song, but an interesting groove on bass very typical of the period.

Happy birthday Rick.🎂 🎉 🥳

Disclaimer: I am not saying this is exactly how Mike Seifrit* (or whoever played bass on it) played this song, but it is how I would play it if I was playing it at a gig.

For more bass cover videos by Omer visit:
www.omer.com/youtube
www.facebook.com/oalkatib
www.instagram.com/omer_alkatib
www.twitter.com/omeralkatib