YOU know I wish that I had Gary's girl ... Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? But if Rick Springfield hadn't airbrushed the facts, the name Jessie wouldn't be part of the lexicon of pop.
"My friend's name was Gary, but I needed a cooler name," Springfield says.
And thus Jessie's Girl was born.
Released in 1981, the song hit No.1 in the US -- vindicating the Sydney-born, British-raised Springfield's decision to base himself in California from 1972.
Springfield had gone solo after Australian band Zoot (featuring Little River Band's Beeb Birtles and Darryl Cotton) split in 1971. His first solo single, Speak to the Sky, went to No.1 in Australia the next year.
After dabbling with record deals and TV shows throughout the '70s, Springfield made an album inspired by the back-to-basics rock of Elvis Costello.
The album, 1981's Working Class Dog, contained Jessie's Girl. But his record company sat on the album for months.
"My album had been recorded and they didn't know what to do with it," Springfield says.
"Barry Manilow was still on the radio; it was basically all ballads and disco."
In the meantime, an increasingly destitute Springfield was offered a job as Dr Noah Drake on US soap General Hospital.
"My (album) producer was telling me not to do it but I was broke so I took it basically for the money, thinking the only people who watched a soap opera were 60-year-old blue-rinse ladies."
The summer of '81 saw Working Class Dog released, Jessie's Girl breaking the drought of guitar songs on the radio and General Hospital becoming the soap du jour.
Rick Springfield had done a Kylie Minogue -- six years before Kylie started the TV-exposure-translating-to-pop-stars trend.
"College kids admitted they watched it. They were structuring classes around the show airing and it became this phenomenon," Springfield says.
"The two fed off each other. But it was a double-edged sword."
Some radio stations dropped Jessie's Girl because Springfield was a soap star.
"I'm a musician first. People to this day still ask me if I'm an actor. F---! It is frustrating.
"Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were my role models. They used to say do everything you can. That stuck in my head. I've always been interested in acting, my brother was in Homicide in Australia. So when the opportunity came up I took it. It definitely helped me.
"But I couldn't wait to get off General Hospital because I knew it was hurting me, image-wise."
SPRINGFIELD fired off a string of hits in the early '80s -- Don't Talk to Strangers, Human Touch, Love Somebody and a cover of Mondo Rock's State of the Heart.
He starred in the 1984 movie Hard to Hold and sang at Live Aid in 1985.
However Springfield slipped off the radar in 1985 when his wife, Barbara, who he married the previous year, gave birth to their son Liam.
"I left the music business in '85 when my son was born; I wanted to stay home. I was pretty messed up in my head at that time," he says.
"I was in therapy, a lot had gone on. My dad had died at the beginning of it all and I hadn't dealt with that. I just became a house husband and truly became a recluse.
"I remember going to an acting class four years after that and my hands were shaking as I put them on the wheel. I know it's more than people want to know, but it isn't all tits and champagne.
"I'm not the depression poster child. I've certainly had my share of good times, but I had a very lonely childhood. My dad was in the army, we moved around a lot.
"I went to England when I was nine and discovered music and girls. Then I came to Australia and started bands, but I had to leave my friends every two years. I'd have to say goodbye to kids I loved, it was really hard. That made me adaptable, but it left its scars as well. The rollercoaster goes up as well as down."
Throughout the 1990s and into this decade, Springfield has continued to write and record new music, and plays up to 200 live shows a year.
TWO years ago he returned to General Hospital to raise his profile and get his new music heard.
"These days everybody's doing everything they can; the Stones are putting themselves in TV. I got offered to do Dancing With the Stars, (but) I said not on your f---ing life.
"That's not me. But going back to something I'd done, like General Hospital, if it points people to my new music then I'm absolutely for it. We're going to do the Home Shopping Network, play a few hits on it. It's all about getting into areas that radio used to get you into, because that opportunity doesn't exist any more."
Springfield runs his own record label through his website, but he's also inked a deal with Universal to release a new album this year.
"We've decided to see one more time what they'll do. They're very gung ho. They're aware of the fan base I have here (in America). Jessie's Girl has a certain position in people's minds over here. There's a lot of fans grown up.
"In America there's a major crisis, radio's f---ed itself. The record industry has f---ed itself. I can't imagine starting off being a musician at this point."
Springfield is the first to admit that in the minds of most people, he's the guy who did Jessie's Girl.
And, make no mistake, he wrote it.
"That's one thing that offends me. People say to me, 'Great song, who wrote it?' I consider myself a writer before anything. It's a great song. If it had stupid lyrics or was dorky I might be embarrassed singing it every show, but it's a great song. I know that. I'm not ashamed to say that.
"I know when I write a good song. I've certainly written some s--- ones. It's got a life of its own that song, and I truly have nothing to do with it, it's in the hands of the gods.
"It's definitely something I'm very proud of, but on the other hand I've written a lot of songs. I have other songs that are as good if not better than Jessie's Girl that get overshadowed.
"Songs are like your kids, some get more attention than others."
Though Springfield is playing on the forthcoming Countdown tour, he never actually performed on the TV show and hasn't played live in Australia since 1971.
"I have less hits to choose from in Australia than I do here," Springfield says of his brief Countdown set.
"It's a reintroduction, that's the way I'm looking at it. Hopefully I can then come back with the whole band and play some new songs as well as the hits."
And the reintroduction won't come with an unfamiliar face -- Springfield may be 58 but he hasn't gone down the Botox route.
"Oh no. When Botox first came out I thought 'Hmm, is this something I can use?'
"But then you see these people on TV with that Botox look. That Botox smile drives me crazy. I can't deal with that at all. I work out and I've got whatever good genes I've got and that's it."
Rick Springfield, Countdown Spectacular 2, Rod Laver Arena, Aug 30, on sale Mon from Ticketek.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21700186-2902,00.html
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