Rick Springfield ~ Jessie's Girl 1981 Extended Meow Mix

In 1980, Carly Simon released "Jesse", a #11 pop song about a woman who loves a man and cannot refuse him, even though he is not the best boyfriend for her. A year later, Rick Springfield recorded a song that seemed to answer it and had a #1 pop hit for two weeks. Springfield was born August 23, 1949 in Sydney, Australia into a military family who was on the move and ended up in England where he discovered the music scene at the age of 13. He got his first guitar and began to throw his energies into his music. He joined an Australian band called Zoot and had some success which led to his first solo hit "Speak To The Sky", which Capitol Records picked up in the US. The song peaked at #14 in 1972. Packaged as a teen idol, he was dissatisfied with that image and tried to change that with a Columbia LP that did not produce any hits. Soon, he was having problems with his manager, label and immigration, so he turned his attentions to acting school. He recorded one more LP that lost steam after Chelsea records went under. Frustrated musically, his acting career took off in a big way when he landed roles on "The Six Million Dollar Man", "The Hulk", "Wonder Woman" and "The Rockford Files" that made him a TV idol. Then the producers of a soap opera "The Young & The Restless" gave him a shot which led to "General Hospital" creating the role of Dr Noah Drake that catapulted his career into the stratosphere. "Jessie's Girl" announced Rick in a big way in the big 80's with the synth driven hit that cemented his superstar status. A closer look at the credits and who is that but Neil Giraldo, partner to rock goddess Pat Benatar.