Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” is one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s.  It was a huge song in 1981, and went to #1 on the Billboard charts on August 1st of that year (incidentally, the same day MTV premiered), and stayed there for two weeks. Those who came of age during that period might not realize that Springfield had been in bands since the ‘60s, and had already released a few solo albums. Amongst his early material are a number of tasty bubblegum glam tracks.

The first single released under his own name, the Sunshine Pop ditty “Speak to the Sky,” was a hit in his native land of Australia, and peaked at #14 in the America during October of 1972. This was his only successfully U.S. 45 until “Jesse’s Girl,” though his popularity increased in his home country, where he was promoted as a teen idol. In 1973, Springfield began wearing glam-inspired outfits, including an all-white, superhero-like costume, with a crest consisting of a lowercase “r” and a lightning bolt.
 

 
His second LP, 1973’s Comic Book Heroes, has a couple of glam songs, including the infectious, bubblegummy number, “I’m Your Superman.”
 

 
Springfield continued in this bubblegum glam direction on his next record, Mission Magic, which was the companion LP to the similarly named animated series, Mission: Magic!. The Saturday morning cartoon was an ABC-TV production, and starred Springfield as his animated self.
 

 
Even though it was an American show, the album was—for some reason—only released in Australia. Which is a shame, really, as it’s the best of his early records, with a handful of catchy bubblegum glam tunes.
 
More early Rick after the jump…

 
Before “Jessie’s Girl” and General Hospital, there was Zoot. Zoot was a bubblegum pop band in Melbourne, Australia from 1965-1971 that included bass player Beeb Birtles (later of The Little River Band), singer and guitarist Daryl Cotton, and future actor and teen idol Rick Springfield, then called “Ricky,” who replaced guitarist Roger Hicks in 1969. Early in their career they wore head-to-toe pink satin, which apparently caused much homophobic harassment to be directed their way throughout Australia. Girls loved them.

In 1970 they ditched their pink Zoot suits and pop music in favor of hard rock and a tougher image. This cover of “Eleanor Rigby” reached #4 in Australia in 1971, was voted Best Single in the Australian Acts category in in Go-Set, the country’s first pop music newspaper, and resulted in Ricky being voted Best Guitarist (he was #2 in 1970).

Of course, as soon as he was tapped for a solo career, Springfield was marketed as a teenybopper idol once again. Obviously his musical career would have taken a much different path had he resembled Angus Young or Lemmy Kilmister.

Nelow. Zoot performing “Eleanor Rigby” on Australian TV in 1971: