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| Rick Springfield was born Richard Lewis Springthorpe on August 23, 1949. The Australian-born Springfield first rose to musical fame at home in Oz, with the pop band Zoot. The band, which also included founding Little River Band member Beeb Birtles, was successful with teen |
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| We Are the '80s
by Rick Springfield
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Label: RCA
2006-07-18
Media: Audio CD
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Tracklisting:
1. Jessie's Girl
2. I've Done Everything For You
3. Love Is Alright Tonite
4. Don't Talk To Strangers
5. What Kind Of Fool Am I?
6. I Get Excited
7. Affair Of The Heart
8. Human Touch
9. Love Somebody
10. Don't Walk Away
11. Bop 'Til You Drop
12. State of The Heart
13. Celebrate Youth
14. Rock Of Life
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Rick Springfield was born Richard Lewis Springthorpe on August 23, 1949. The Australian-born Springfield first rose to musical fame at home in Oz, with the pop band Zoot. The band, which also included founding Little River Band member Beeb Birtles, was successful with teenybopper pop before recruiting Springfield in 1969. Under his direction, the band turned toward harder, more serious music, scoring a big hit with a heavy-metal rendition of The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” By the time the band split and Springfield left Australia in his early twenties, he’d already been named top guitarist in the nation twice, top songwriter once, and represented Australia at the World Music Festival in Tokyo.
Springfield’s first solo release, “Speak to the Sky,” was a top ten single in Australia and, in 1972, reached #14 on the U.S. Billboard charts. After that one hit, however, a series of problems with record companies and promotions temporarily stalled Springfield’s musical progress. After the next two albums he released in the United States, Comic Book Heroes (1973) and Wait for Night (1976), failed to achieve the success of that first release, Springfield turned briefly to acting. A contract with Universal Studios landed him roles on a variety of popular television shows of the late seventies, including The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Gallactica. Perhaps his best known television role, that of Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital, came just months before his triumphant return to the top forty.
“Jessie’s Girl” reached the number one spot in August, 1981, just as MTV was making its debut. That album, Working Class Dog, was the source of two additional hit songs, “I’ve Done Everything for You” (# 8) and “Love is Alright Tonite” (# 20). Thus began a whirlwind string of four platinum albums and 16 top forty songs in four years. 1982’s Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet included the # 2 “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” along with “I Get Excited” (#32) and “What Kind of Fool Am I?” The next year, the somewhat harder-edged Living In Oz also produced three top forty hits, “Affair of the Heart” (# 9), “Human Touch” (# 18) and “Souls” (# 23). These years brought recognition as well as success—Rick won a Grammy for “Best Male Rock Vocalist” for “Jessie’s Girl,” along with American Music Award nominations for “Favorite Male Artist” and “Favorite Single.” The following year, both “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “I Get Excited” garnered Grammy nominations, and Rick won the American Music Award for “Favorite Male Artist.”
The soundtrack to his major motion picture, Hard to Hold, was Rick’s fourth and last platinum album of the 80s. Again, the album produced three top forty singles, “Don’t Walk Away,” “Bop ‘Til You Drop,” and “Love Somebody.” However, Rick’s 1985 album, Tao, a lyrically deeper and musically more experimental production, reached only gold status, and didn’t produce a top ten single. Springfield took a break from music that lasted for three years, and returned in 1988 with Rock of Life. The album was doomed when Rick was injured in an ATV accident just days before the tour was to begin and rendered unable to hold a guitar for a year.
When he recovered, Rick turned back to acting, landing the lead roles in two television series, High Tide and Human Target. He also starred in a number of made for television and cable movies, including Nick Knight, Legion, Loyal Opposition, Dead Reckoning, Silent Motive, In the Shadow’s Someone’s Watching, A Change of Place and Legion.
After a collaboration with former guitarist Tim Pierce and Bob Marlette, Sahara Snow, was released overseas in 1997, Rick shifted his focus back to making his own music and released his first solo CD in more than a decade, Karma, in 1999. The release of Karma was surrounded by a resurgence of Springfield’s loyal fan base, many of whom took to the road and attended concerts across the country. VH1, A & E, and TNN all produced biographical documentaries covering Springfield’s life and career.
In January, 2001, just as Rick took over the lead in the multi-million dollar Vegas production EFX Alive, he released his first live album, The Greatest Hits…ALIVE.” After a two year run in EFX Alive and guest appearances on the CDs of friends Corey Feldman and Maggie Brandon, Rick went to work on another solo CD, shock/denial/anger/acceptance, which was released in February 2004. The CD is the hardest rock Springfield has ever produced as a solo artist, and promises to capture the attention of an entirely new audience.
Bio written by: RockStories |
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