Working Class Dog

Rick Springfield enters the Eighties ready to rock and roll. He's signed with RCA Records, a label that believes in his talent. His first album for the label, Working Class Dog, is produced, in part, by the same Keith Olsen who has been so successful with groups including Fleetwood Mac and Foreigner. And the public's musical taste, he feels, finally caught up with what he's been delivering all along -- strong, adult-oriented, musically accomplished pop.

As the son of a career soldier (his father is a Lieutenant Colonel with an M.B.E.), Rick, who was born August 23, 1949, in Sydney, Australia, grew up on Army bases in that country and in England.

Taking up guitar and piano in his mid-teens, he joined four friends to form a band called The Jordy Boys, after Jordanville, a rough-life suburb of Melbourne. The group played American-derived blues in a style inspired by The Rolling Stones. "We were as hardcore as you get," Rick describes the music, "...at sixteen years old.'"

He then joined Rock House, a rock and roll show band, something like Sha Na Na. With them, he spent a year entertaining U.S. troops in Vietnam.

Rick's next, and most successful, band was called The Zoot. He spent two years in the group, gaining considerable fame, gold records, and awards, including a citation as Best Guitar Player in the country. The Zoot split, and Rick began a solo career.

He had begun songwriting while with The Zoot, so it's no surprise that his first solo hit was an original. "Speak to the Sky" reached the #1 spot in Australia, #5 in Japan, and brought him an offer to come to the United States and sign with Capitol Records.

He recorded "Beginnings," his first album (which contained a remake of "Speak to the Sky"), in London. The single, released in the U.S., reached the Top 15 in 1972, and the handsome singer-songwriter's new career seemed secure.

Success would have been his, it seems in retrospect, save for two serious problems. First, visa difficulties kept Rick from performing live in the U.S. for two years -- long enough to put a serious cramp in any musician's career. Second, Rick's good looks and strong talent became almost a curse: his face graced countless of teen-slanted fan magazines, alongside those of dozen of other youngesters' idols, also handsome but generally less credible musically. Older listeners, who doubtless would have admired Rick's abilities as a musician, were put off by the kind of publicity generated by his well-meaning but off-the-mark advisors. Rick's second album, "Comic Book Heroes," was issued on the Columbia label. More progressive musically that "Beginnings,' it too, failed to find an audience.

By the time his third album was to be recorded, Rick had signed with new management, who were determined to resolve the apparent dichotomy of his image and music. "Wait For Night" was recorded with a band including Elton John's former rhythm section of Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray. A national tour was in the works, and the single, "Take a Hand," was working its way up the charts when...Rick's label, Chelsea, folded virtually overnight.

Fortunately, Rick had been working on a parallel career. Studying acting with Malcolm McDowell and noted coach Jack Garfein, he began to accumulate a series of respectable television credits, including roles on "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Wonder Woman," "California Fever," "Turnabout," and "The Rockford Files." He played a karate-trained policeman on "The Incredible Hulk" (he has his own brown belt in Tae Kwon-do), and wrote a song for an episode of "The Eddie Capra Mysteries," in which he also appeared as an actor. He also performed in the TV pilot of "Battlestar Galactia," and held a recurring role in "The Young and the Restless."