Rick Springfield Songs Ranked
Richard Lewis Springthorpe (born 23 August 1949), known professionally as Rick Springfield, is an Australian musician and actor. He was a member of the pop-rock group Zoot from 1969 to 1971, then started his solo career with his debut single “Speak to the Sky” reaching the top 10 in Australia in mid-1972, when he moved to the United States. He had a No. 1 hit with “Jessie’s Girl” in 1981 in both Australia and the U.S., for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He followed with four more top 10 U.S. hits: “I’ve Done Everything for You”, “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “Affair of the Heart”, and “Love Somebody”. Springfield’s two U.S. top 10 albums are Working Class Dog (1981) and Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet (1982). Here are all of Rick Springfield songs ranked,
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13. Spanish Eyes (Beautiful Feelings, 1984)
“It’s pure poetry wrapped inside rock and delivered with raw confidence. An amazing song that I will never tire “
12. Love is Alright Tonite (Working Class Dog, 1981)
“The third and clunkiest single from the album. Musically, it’s solid but nearly all of the lyrics sound like placeholders. Easily Springfield’s finest moment, disregarding the heady days of Zoot.
11. Tiger by the Tail (Living in Oz, 1983)
“Tiger by the Tail’ has very funny, memorable rhythm. There is no other song that brings in an album in the way that this song does.”
10. Souls (Living in Oz, 1983)
“Musically, it’s pretty solid and somewhat engaging. But the lyrics are far clunkier than they should be for a pop-rock single.”
See more: Rick Springfield Albums Ranked
9. What Kind of Fool Am I (Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, 1982)
“Rick Springfield at his best – set the tone for a fabulous successful career which built many long term loyal fans. I love it, my young niece loves it – still is a dear album all these years later.”
8. I Get Excited (Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, 1982)
“If you didn’t know the story, upon hearing this song for the first time, you’d probably guess the record label forced Rick at gunpoint to write a “Jessie’s Girl” soundalike that they could then shove up the chart. Actually, that’s backwards. Rick loved the idea of doing a soundalike single, and recorded this song with that in mind. The label thought it sounded too similar to “Jessie’s Girl”, and only released it as a single after “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “What Kind of Fool Am I”.”
7. State of the Heart (Tao, 1985)
“A pretty good ballad undercut by a couple clunky lines. The line about them working different shifts and having “from six until seven to work this out” is especially troublesome.”
6. Human Touch (Living in Oz, 1983)
“I love Rick and can barely pick just one…but had to pick this since Rick was so prophetic in writing this… “Everybody’s talking to computers…”. It’s still a fan favorite at concerts because he let’s the audience ‘human touch’ him!”
See more: Fairport Convention Albums Ranked
5. I’ve Done Everything for You (Working Class Dog, 1981)
“Very good pop-rock with a bit of backbone to it, and the single edits out the draggy parts of the LP version, to boot.”
4. Love Somebody (Hard to Hold, 1984)
” think something about playing in arenas makes rock musicians want to write a full-on arena rock song at least once. Something that sounds great being blasted to ten thousand people, that brings fans to their feet and fists in the air, and screams of pure rock and roll catharsis at all the appropriate junctures. “
3. Affair of the Heart (Living in Oz, 1983)
“You don’t come across many pop songs where the chorus is the weakest link, but that’s the case here. The chorus isn’t bad, mind you, but it’s just “it’s an affair of the heart…(clap…clap)” repeated a few times. The end of the song just keeps repeating there, and although it fades to black before you hear it eight times, it still seems like it’s chasing its tail.”
2. Don’t Talk to Strangers (Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, 1982)
“He wrote this tune years earlier as a song called ‘Spanish Eyes’ that was subsequently released after this was a hit. Although ‘DTTS’ is an awesome song…the other one was neat to hear. But, I think it was wise of him to revamp it into this May, 1982 hit!”
1. Jessie’s Girl (Working Class Dog, 1981)
“1981 was not a great year for the top of the charts, but “Jessie’s Girl” managed to insert a bright spot for a mean-spirited number about jealousy. Normally, I don’t like to praise songs that so openly and plainly give credence to the most immoral of the Seven Deadly Sins, and yet “Jessie’s Girl” is so juvenile it’s almost kind of brilliant. Rick knows he can’t possibly ever ask this woman out – it’d be both unfair to her and unkind to Jessie – so he’s left asking where he can find someone like her.”
