Jessie's Girl

Album

Working Class Dog

Label

RCA Records

Genre

Power Pop

Composer(s)

Richard Springthorpe

Entered Chart

Mar 28, 1981

Peak Date

Aug 1, 1981

Released

February 1981

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

RCA PB-12201

B-Side

Carry Me Away

Who is Jessie's girl? We may never know, but in a Songfacts interview with Rick Springfield, he told us the story. Said Rick: "I don't know her name. It was a brief relationship I had when I was making stained glass for a while. I was going to a stained glass class in Pasadena, and I met this guy and his girlfriend. I was completely turned on to his girlfriend, but she was just not interested. So I had a lot of sexual angst, and I went home and wrote a song about it. Then about four months later I stopped going to the class and lost contact with them. The only thing I remember is his name was Gary, so I changed the name, because 'Gary' didn't sing very well. But the whole thing is absolutely what I was feeling. He was getting it and I wasn't, and it was really tearing me up. And sexual angst is an amazing motivator to write a song. Actually, Oprah's people tried to find her, and they got as far back as finding the stained glass guy. I couldn't remember his name, but I said it was late '70s; they found him, and he had died two years earlier, and they'd thrown all his papers out a year after that. So we missed finding out who she was by a year." This was Springfield's second Top 20 hit (the first being "Speak To The Sky" in 1971) and it was his only #1, where it stayed for two weeks in August 1981. The popularity of the song and album that summer was bolstered by the fact that Springfield, also an actor, had landed the role of Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera General Hospital earlier that spring. Springfield began acting in the mid-'70s when his music career had stalled and his then-girlfriend, actress Linda Blair, suggested he try it. Speaking of Linda Blair, when Springfield and Blair were dating, Blair was just 15 years old while Springfield was 25. They only lived together for one year, and according to an interview on VH1's Behind the Music, Blair said, "He's someone I'll always love" while Springfield says that of all his former girlfriends, Blair is the only one he remains friends with. Remember that this was 1974, when standards were a little more relaxed, and median age of consent for most of Springfield's native country of Australia is 16. >> Spingfield's take on relationships: "We’re clueless. Desperately clueless. Everybody is on relationships. Truly, I remember being a jerk because I thought that’s what girls wanted. You only really learn about women when you get into a long relationship, unless you got a really great dad – a really clued-in father – or a really open mom." This was the #1 song in the United States when MTV launched on August 1, 1981. The video became a favorite on the fledgling network, as the photogenic Springfield starred in a well-produced promo where he used his acting skills to portray his angst. Springfield says it's his only video where he took creative control, storyboarding it himself. The scene where he smashes the mirror remains an iconic clip; it was the most expensive part of the video, since Rick estimates that went through 24 mirrors. That's Pat Benatar's producer-guitarist-husband Neil Giraldo on guitar; he also played bass on the track. He came up with the solo after the rest of the track was complete in a bit of improvisation. Keith Olsen, a producer on the Working Class Dog album, was the connection: He had produced Benatar's Crimes Of Passion album in 1980. Early in the 2004 movie 13 Going On 30, the 13-year-old version of the main character kisses the screen when this video comes on MTV. It was also used in these films: Boogie Nights (1997) Keeping the Faith (2000) The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008) Couples Retreat (2009) Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) And these TV shows: Dawson's Creek ("Highway to Hell" - 2002) Angel ("Unleashed" - 2003) Cold Case ("Lover's Lane" - 2004) Californication ("Comings and Goings" - 2009) Two and a Half Men ("Something My Gynecologist Said" - 2012) Master of None ("Parents" - 2015) Once Upon a Time ("An Untold Story" - 2016) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ("The Gang Hits the Slopes" - 2016) Steve Antin, in one of his first screen appearances, played Jessie in the video. In 1982, he played a similar role in the '80s teen comedy/drama The Last American Virgin (as the coldhearted character "Rick"). He later played Troy in The Goonies. This returned to the charts when the cast of the TV series Glee performed it in the 2010 episode "Laryngitis." Their version went to #23 in the US. In the category of weird covers, this song was covered by The Chipmunks, using the same instrumental backing track, no less. Check out their 1982 album Chipmunk Rock if you just have to have it.

Jessie is a friend
Yeah I know he's been a good friend of mine
But lately something's changed that ain't hard to define
Jessie's got himself a girl and I want to make her mine

And she's watching him with those eyes
And she's loving him with that body, I just know it
Yeah and he's holding her in his arms late, late at night

You know I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Where can I find a woman like that?

I play along with the charade
There doesn't seem to be a reason to change
You know, I feel so dirty when they start talking cute
I wanna tell her that I love her
But the point is probably moot

'Cause she's watching him with those eyes
And she's loving him with that body, I just know it
And he's holding her in his arms late, late at night

You know I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Where can I find a woman like that?

Like Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Where can I find a woman
Where can I find a woman like that?

And I'm looking in the mirror all the time
Wondering what she don't see in me
I've been funny, I've been cool with the lines
Ain't that the way love supposed to be?

Tell me, where can I find a woman like that?

You know, I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I want Jessie's girl
Where can I find a woman like that?

Like Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl