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: