Editorial Note: Rick addresses the "I'll never sing on General Hospital" question in this interview.
When Rick Springfield wrote Jessie's Girl in 1981, he never thought it would be a hit.
In fact, the 57-year-old pop-rocker never expected the song to be released as a single.
"I have always been terrible at picking singles -- I just thought it was a good album filler. But, back then, if a DJ liked a song, they played it and that's what happened," he says.
"RCA came and said, 'we are getting great response on this Jessie's Girl song, we should release it.' So basically radio picked that song."
While Springfield believes the Grammy-winning song from Working Class Dog was strong enough to become a radio hit, he still can't understand why, or how, it's become an American classic. Over the past 25 years, Jessie's Girl has been featured in several films, including 1997's Boogie Nights and 2004's 13 Going on 30, and has been covered by such bands as Frickin' A and Everclear.
"It has taken on a life of its own, which has nothing to do with me," says Springfield, who performs at Flames Central Sunday.
"I had nothing to do with it appearing in the movies it's been in and I had nothing to do with it being covered -- it's just gotten into the public psyche to a degree. It's its own power now."
As for this weekend's show, Springfield says he'll touch on every song from 2001's The Greatest Hits Alive CD.
"I do a medley of about eight of them, which is actually pretty cool, and all the favourites, of course. But we start the set out with a new song that will be on the new album we're going to be recording towards the end of the year."
Springfield, who has not stopped touring since playing for the troops in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, plans to use his acting job on General Hospital to keep his music career going.
On top of playing Dr. Noah Drake, he's taking on a second character, an Australian musician, who will play his music on the show.
This is something Springfield never thought he'd do.
"(In the '80s) I was adamant that my character didn't play music because the last thing I wanted to do was add to the stigma of being on a soap opera. Now, there is no real stigma to it. A pop star is picked every week on American Idol, so it's a whole new musical ball game."
Tickets for Springfield's Sunday night show at Flames Central are available at Ticketmaster.
Original article posted at Jam Showbiz Canada.
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