"Jessie's Girl" is a song written and performed by Australian singer Rick Springfield. It was released on the album Working Class Dog. The song is about unrequited love and centers on a young man in love with his best friend's girlfriend.
Upon its release in the United States in 1981, the song was slow to break out. It debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 chart on 28 March but took 19 weeks to hit No. 1 reaching that position on 1 August, one of the slowest climbs to number one at that time. It remained at No. 1 for two weeks and would be Springfield's only No. 1 hit. The song was at No. 1 when MTV launched on 1 August 1981. Ultimately spending 32 weeks on the chart, Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for all of 1981.
Springfield was taking a stained glass class along with his friend Gary and Gary's girlfriend. He initially wanted to use the actual name of the friend he was singing about, but instead decided to go with a different name — "Jessie". He was wearing a T-shirt with the name of football player Ron Jessie on it and changed the name from Gary to Jessie, then recorded the song.
Springfield says that he does not remember the name of the girlfriend, and believes that the real woman who inspired the song has no idea that she was "Jessie's Girl", telling Oprah Winfrey, "I was never really introduced to her. It was always just, like, panting from afar." Springfield told Songfacts that Oprah's people tried to find her, and they got as far back as finding out that the teacher of the class had died two years previously and that his class records were thrown out one year after his death. In 2006, it was named No. 20 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s".
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