Singer Rick Springfield has claimed that he always knew that his No1 single, 'Jessie's Girl', would be a major hit.
The track peaked at number one in the US, as well as Springfield's native Australia, following its release in 1981. 'Jessie's Girl' also saw Springfield win a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Rock Performance from a male in 1983.
Despite taking months to eventually hit number one, Rick Springfield insisted that he never doubted the song's potential.
"I always thought every song I wrote is going to be a hit", he said in a recent interview. "You have to think that, otherwise, I won't finish the song. If I think [something] is album filler, I won't finish it. Back then, I was certainly writing songs that I would love to hear on the radio".
Elsewhere, Rick Springfield stated that his tireless work ethic has been key to shaping the vision he shares when it comes to creating music.
"I love to write and play," he says. "I would have a commercial element [in the things I was writing], but I thought there were way better songs on Working Class Dog than 'Jessie's Girl".
The song itself came about when Rick Springfield was working on his material for his 1981 album, Working Class Dog, where he was recording at Sound City, the studio owned by his manager Joe Gottfried. It was Gottfried who suggested to Springfield that he link up with producer Keith Olsen for some songs. Olsen had previously worked with Springfield on his 1972 album, Beginnings.
"He listened to all of my demos. I do very thorough demos and back then, I was using cushions for drums", Rick recalled. "I had an old bass that I got for 20 bucks from a pawn shop. It all fit into the Teac four-track [recorder] that was kind of standard for home songwriters. I had 10 songs that I was really happy with. I went to Keith's house and played them and he listened to them all and picked 'Jessie's Girl,' I go, 'Why?' I thought there were much more commercial songs on there. But he was right and you can't fault that".
When he showed the song to Olsen, the producer who has also worked with artists like Foreigner, Pat Benatar and Fleetwood Mac, made a few changes from the original demo.
"There was a big long solo in the middle of the song on the demo. I'd vamp on A and play a two-minute solo," Springfield explained.
"As Keith was listening to it, he was making a cutting motion. So I learned from him to be very concise in my writing. That's probably the main thing I learned from him. You know, make it short and sweet and hit the good spots and leave the stuff that people are going to start yawning about out. I've tried to follow that all along with my career".
Rick Springfield also recorded a new version of 'Jessie's Girl' for his latest album, Big Hits: Rick Springfield's Greatest Hits, Vol 2, a record which will contain his greatest works from a 25 year career.
On this new version of the track, Springfield found it intriguing to revisit what he had put together over two decades earlier.
"The initial guitar sound was a tough one to [replicate]," he said. "Because it was two amps -- two old Marshalls with an Eventide between them. So you'd lower the pitch of one and it created this really unique sound. As soon as you hear the riff on the radio, you recognize that sound. Matching that was pretty tough".
