Jessie's Girl

"Jessie's Girl"
Single by Rick Springfield
from the album Working Class Dog
B-side"Carry Me Away"
ReleasedFebruary 1981
GenrePower pop[1]
Length3:14
LabelRCA Records
Songwriter(s)Rick Springfield
Producer(s)Keith Olsen
Rick Springfield singles chronology
"Take a Hand"
(1976) 		"Jessie's Girl"
(1981) 		"I've Done Everything for You"
(1981)
Audio sample

"Jessie's Girl" is a song written and performed by Australian singer Rick Springfield. It was released on the album Working Class Dog, which was released in February 1981.[2] The song is about unrequited love and centres on a young man in love with his best friend's girlfriend.

Upon its release in the United States in 1981, "Jessie's Girl" was slow to break out. It debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 chart on 28 March[3] but took 19 weeks to hit No. 1[4] reaching that position on 1 August,[5] one of the slowest climbs to No. 1 at that time.[4] It remained in that position for two weeks and would be Springfield's only No. 1 hit.[3] The song was at No. 1 when MTV launched on 1 August 1981.[6] The song ultimately spent 32 weeks on the chart.[7] Billboard ranked it as No. 5 for all of 1981.[8]

The song also peaked at No. 1 in Springfield's native country of Australia and later won him a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

"Jessie's Girl" was released in the United Kingdom in March 1984 and peaked at No. 43 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1984.[9]

Record World said that "a strong rhythm guitar fuels the pop-rocker while Rick's determined vocal works the hook."[10]

Springfield recorded an acoustic version of the song for his 1999 album, Karma.

  1. ^ Huey, Steve. "Rick Springfield – Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 May 2014. After a solid decade's worth of work in the '70s, Rick Springfield turned into an international star in the early '80s thanks to the power pop classic "Jessie's Girl."
  2. ^ Ling, Dave (16 April 2015). "The real story behind Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl". Classic Rock. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  3. ^ a b Whitburn, Joel (1991). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 545.
  4. ^ a b Grein, Paul (8 May 1982). "Chartbeat". Billboard. Vol. 94, no. 18. p. 6. ISSN 0006-2510.
  5. ^ "Billboard Hot 100". Billboard. Vol. 93, no. 30. 1 August 1981. p. 68. ISSN 0006-2510.
  6. ^ "Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield". Songfacts. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  7. ^ "Rick Springfield – Jessie's Girl – Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference US was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference UK was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Single Picks" (PDF). Record World. 21 March 1981. p. 12. Retrieved 26 February 2023.