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Calling All Girls
• How Do You Talk to Girls [3:17]
• Calling All Girls [3:24]
• Jessie's Girl [3:15]
• Love is Alright Tonite [3:01]
• Still Crazy for You [3:53]
• Just One Kiss [3:16]
• The Light of Love [2:47]
• Alyson [3:51]
• Souls [4:02]
• The Power of Love (The Tao of Love) [5:03]
• Written in Rock [4:38]
• Hold on to Your Dream [4:34]
• (If You Think) You're Groovy [3:22]
• Love Somebody [3:32]
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In June 1983, Rick Springfield’ New Jersey concerts overlapped with many high school graduations. Specifically, that of Yorktown High School, in Westchester, New York. As Springfield was basking in the height of his acclaim, a certain seventeen-year-old girl, a mere junior in high school, was in the middle of a dilemma. Should she go to Rick’s concert or attend her boyfriend’s graduation?
It is no surprise to anyone – Rick had a way with the girls. Although he hit stardom later than most teen idols )he was 32 years old when Jessie’s Girl skyrocketed), his pretty face graced countless teeny-bopper magazines and posters as often as counterparts ten years his junior. Screaming girls from 8 to 18 years old were scooping up his records, scheduling their day around General Hospital, and selling out his stadium concerts. By 1983, Rick Springfield was two years into the enormous success that had eluded him for over ten years.
Like millions of other girls, for that high school junior from a modest size town in New York, Rick Springfield was “it”. She had “all three” of Rick’s records – WORKING CLASS DOG, SUCCESS HASN’T SPOILED ME YET, and LIVING IN OZ. Unbeknownst to her, WORKING CLASS DOG was Springfield’s first album on RCA Records and his second US album (BEGINNINGS on Capitol in 1972 was the first) but it was the eighth record he has released (counting three from his days with Zoot in Australia). She did not know about his long journey to music stardom. She was unaware of the four singles he had released between 1972 and 1976. She was only interested in finding a way to fulfill the dream of seeing Rick live and somehow see her boyfriend graduate on the same day.
Two years prior to that, in 1981, WORKING CLASS DOG was released. RCA chose I’ve Done Everything For You as the first single but after radio picked up Jessie’s Girl they got it straight and released the track that would go to No. 1 and propel the record to platinum status. That’s when the money, the fame, and the girls started pouring in. Jessie’s Girl featured Rick burning for the forbidden fruit of a pal’s gal. Rick may have been stand-up about it, but millions of women would have gladly dumped their Jessie to be Rick Springfield’s girl. WORKING CLASS DOG stayed on the charts for 73 weeks, peaking at No. 7.
His second album for RCA features Rick on the cover serving champagne to his famous dog, Ron, who had clearly become a little full of himself. Rick, as the chauffeur spoofing the rock star image, appropriately named the record SUCCESS HASN’T SPOILED ME YET winking to his fans that he wasn’t just a take-it-for-granted type of guy. The first track, Calling All Girls, started off describing an insatiable woman he couldn’t deal with – so he was going out on the town looking for action. But when Rick really called to all the girls, they didn’t only come because he was beautiful, they came because he gave them what most girls really want: pieces of his true self. Sure, Rick was amazing to look at, but when the hits drew the girls in, it was the glimpses he shared about his life that kept them there. One didn’t need to read the teen magazines (he refused to grant them interviews anyway after his experience ten years prior) to know the loss of his father was a devastating blow. Rick could go from a superficial, burned boyfriend, to an insecure kid wondering how to talk to girls, to the man struggling to get perspective through his pain (“…and it thrills me to the bone, to know, Daddy knows the great unknown…”) all on one record. These early RCA albums foreshadowed his ability to share his inner self through his music.
In 1983 RCA released LIVING IN OZ, its third Rick Springfield release. Once again, the girls answered the call and the album went platinum. The soundtrack to the forgettable HARD TO HOLD movie followed in 1984, to the tune of memorable platinum sales. It seemed the legions of fans, mostly women, would follow him anywhere. There was plenty to keep them there. Rick not only shared parts of himself, he also spoke to the coming-of-age girl about things that were on her mind. He wrote sexy lyrics full of love and longing and hidden desires. Many of his fans were just beginning to explore these thoughts, and Rick seemed to understand their “on-the-brink-of-womanhood” perspective. By the time TAO hit the charts in April 1985, the young girl who couldn’t decide whether to miss his concert back in 1983 was almost through her first year of college. As were many of Springfield’s followers. She, like many fans, was growing up, and some fans were moving on . TAO was a different record for his traditional fan base of young girls. With both TAO and ROCK OF LIFE, Springfield began to explore ideas about self-reflection, religion, love and death that other famous singers (like Madonna with Ray of Light) wouldn’t discover for over ten years. TAO reached No. 21 on the charts and ended up gold. In comparison with the enormous success he and RCA had known with the other four albums, this was a scary sign. Rick had released one record a year for five years (besides doing television, a movie and touring). He was tired. ROCK OF LIFE came out in 1988 after a three-year break. He was ready to reclaim his success but due to an All Terrain Vehicle accident he was unable to support the record with a tour. TAO peaked at No. 55 on the charts and never reached gold.
This collection, CALLING ALL GIRLS, includes tracks from the six records RCA released by Rick Springfield. They trace a common theme – Rick calling out to the girls, the romantic Rick who was sometimes shy, sometimes confident and always accessible, regardless of his movie star looks. Contained here are the songs that spoke to that core fan – the girl who tried to understand the man through his music. The girl who loved Ron the dog as much as he did, who mourned the loss of his father along with him, who wished she could be the object of his desires because she knew from his songs what he was looking for. All of these girls were just like the one who wanted so much to go to his concert in 1983: because maybe he would spot her and know she was the one. (If only her boyfriend didn’t have to graduate on the same day.)
So what did that girl end up doing? As much as she tried to juggle, it turned out to be impossible to do both and she was forced to chose. In the end, it came down to reality versus fantasy, so she waved good-bye as her four best girlfriends got into a car blasting Jessie’s Girl on the cassette player on their way to New Jersey without her.
Sixteen years later, in 1999 (long after the high school boyfriend was gone (she received a call from one of those four girlfriends who now worked as a radio traffic reporter. She had tickets to see Rick Springfield (“Remember how much we loved him?”) on a concert cruise sponsored by WPLJ radio in New York. At the age of 33, the girl who made the “reality” decision finally got the fantasy-fulfillment of seeing Rick Springfield live. She was surrounded by the same girls that had always been there for Rick – only now they were in their early-to mid-thirties too. The concert was magical and Rick sang all the right songs. The women were still screaming and there was a feeling of history in the air – that familiarity you feel from homecomings or reunions. The girl who had missed out so many years before had lived a dream (she even got to snap a picture of Rick surrounded by her friends) and the only other person in the room who seemed to be happier than her was Rick himself. There he was, 50 years old, still living his dream, still the object of adoration – still calling out to his girls and still getting them to come along. In the long run, Rick’s fan base hung in there and he was relishing every moment of it.
This collection pays tribute to those girls Rick called out to so many years ago. It’s the songs they know by heart – and a few they may have missed that speak the same message. They are the romantic side of Rick – the side that asked us to join him on a journey and we all said yes – including me.
Rick Springfield continues to release records and tour. He is currently starring in EFX Alive in Las Vegas, Nevada – Victoria Sarro
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