The Story of Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield | Professor of Rock

If you’re a Child of the 80s this song was like a rite of passage. A quintessential 80s classic Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield went to #1 the day MTV launched with a music video perfect for the channel. General Hospital Heartthrob Rick Springfield tells us the inspiration behind the song and album working class dog and how he had to shatter 24 mirrors to get it right. Thank you to this Episodes Sponsor, Zenni Optical Incredible Prices on New Glasses - https://bit.ly/ZenniOpticalShop ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Craig M, Stephen Ahlbom, Dustin Wooten, Raymond Hagen, Steve, Jeff Kolek, M Gonzales, CharleyAnne ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Access To Backstage Content Become a Patron - http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Check Out My Hand Picked Selection Below Professor's Store 100 Best Selling Albums https://amzn.to/3h3qZX9 Ultimate History of 80s Teen Movie https://amzn.to/3ifjdKQ 80s to 90s VHS Video Cover Art https://amzn.to/2QXzmIX Totally Awesome 80s A Lexicon https://amzn.to/3h4ilrk Best In Ear Headphones (I Use These Every Day) https://amzn.to/2ZcTlIl ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here for Premium Content: https://bit.ly/SignUpForPremiumContent​ https://bit.ly/Facebook_Professor_of_... https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of... ​ #80s #Vinyl #Story Hey music junkies and vinyl junkies Professor of Rock always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest 80s rock songs of all time for the music community and vinyl community with music history video essay's including today's Rick Springfield story of Jessie's Girl. If you’ve ever owned records, cassettes and CD’s at different times in you life or still do this is your place Subscribe below right now to be a part of our daily celebration of the rock era with exclusive stories from straight from the artists and click on our patreon link in the description to become an Honorary Producer. I’m excited to bring you another episode from our series Revelations- where featured artists reveal rare stories about their biggest songs, along with fascinating insight about their careers. On this installment of Revelations, 80s rocker Rick Springfield will tell us the real story of his 1981 #1 smash Jessie’s Girl. The song took 19 weeks to hit the top spot. One of the slowest to #1 at that time. it ended up being the 5th biggest song in a year where the musical landscape was changing by the second. The week Jessi’s girl hit the top spot MTV launched and all of the sudden radio was overshadowed by the music video: just to get us in the timeframe and nostalgia of 1981 let’s paint the picture. So Mtv Launched, on the other side of the pond in the UK the Specials and just spent 3 weeks at #1 with Ghostown a song that resonated with the british people perfectly capturing the sparse existence of many who were inundated with unemployment, urban decay and violence in the cities. America was also experiencing a recession, anti apartheid demonstrations were taking place, one at the end of july in Hamilton, New Zealand, forced the cancellation of a rugby test between New Zealand's All Blacks and South Africa’s Springboks by invading the pitch during the game. Half of the 1981 baseball season was lost due to a strike after players and owner couldn’t agree. both the United Staes and Russia performed Nuclear tests as the Cold War was heating up. in early July Sandra Day O connor was nominated as the first female judge on the supreme court… So many parallels between 1981 and what’s been happening lately in 2022.. It’s crazy… Well except for music. the Top 40 from this same time in 1981 was much better than the top 40 of today but we’ll save that for a Redux episode alway, Rick Springfield who was Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital from 81 to 83 blew up after Jessie’ Girl.