Back in 1981, Rick Springfield shook up the music charts with his breakthrough album Working Class Dog and its hit track “Jessie’s Girl.” That success supercharged the Australian-born guitarist’s career and sent him on a whirlwind of recording and touring that hasn’t stopped.
His main instrument throughout that time has been a Gibson Les Paul. Now after years on the road, Springfield has announced on his Instagram account that the guitar is getting a break from touring.
“The magnificent six!” Springfield writes in his post, which shows a collection of a half dozen electric guitars that includes the Les Paul. “Finally got my Les Paul (second from the left) back off the road. It’s been there for years. It was my main guitar for the Working Class Dog record and I’m real happy to have it home.
“It weighs as much as an anvil and gives you a hell of a backache,” he joked, “but it sounds like a monster.”
But make no mistake: Springfield’s Les Paul is not the guitar heard on “Jessie’s Girl.” The axes on that smash — as well as the bass guitar — were played by Neil Giraldo, who used a B.C. Rich Eagle.
Springfield posted about the instrument in a 2015 Facebook post that included a photo of the Eagle.
“Neil Giraldo sent me this shot of his BC Rich that he played when we first cut the song,” he wrote. “He still has the grease pencil markings of the settings he used.”
As Springfield told Guitar Player in 2022, “Jessie’s Girl” was inspired by real life. By the late ’70s, he had released a few albums that went nowhere. After a move to Los Angeles to work on his acting career, he landed the role of Dr. Noah Drake on the ABC daytime soap General Hospital.
On the side, for fun, Springfield took classes in stained glass with his friend Gary, whose girlfriend happened to catch the guitarist’s eye. Gary liked to wear a football jersey bearing the name of NFL wide receiver Ron Jessie, which is how the song became “Jessie’s Girl” rather than “Gary’s Girl.”
When composing the tune, Springfield took inspiration from the guitar rock he was hearing on the airwaves, a change in direction from the pop that dominated his earlier work.
“AC/DC and punk stuff like Elvis Costello was getting played,” he says, “so I thought, Screw it. I’m going to write guitar-based songs that I like. We’ll see what happens.”
Inspired further by his love of the Kinks’ hit “You Really Got Me,” Springfield started playing with an opening riff idea that sounded anthemic.
“I tried doing my own AC/DC-type solo, but it was a lot of noodling. Neil came up with a solo that was really musical and fit the vibe of the song perfectly.”
— Rick Springfield
When it came time to record “Jessie’s Girl,” producer Keith Olsen — noted for his work on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours as well as the Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks album Buckingham Nicks — brought in Giraldo. Springfield says he tried recording the guitar solo himself before giving up.
“I tried doing my own AC/DC-type solo, but it was a lot of noodling,” he says. “Neil came up with a solo that was really musical and fit the vibe of the song perfectly. He was absolutely brilliant.”
“Jessie’s Girl” was never intended to be released as a single, Springfield explains. “When I wrote it, I thought it was a good album song, and that was about it. When radio stations started playing it and it became this giant hit, I was as amazed as anybody.
“The DJs called the label and said, ‘Might not be a bad idea to release this as a single.’ That’s when RCA jumped on it.”
The stars quickly aligned as “Jessie’s Girl” became a smash hit, pushed along by Springfield’s growing fame as a heartthrob on General Hospital, which was then in its peak years, with 14 million viewers daily. His popularity skyrocketed, creating a massive fan base for his records and concerts.
“It was crazy,” he says. “I went from nobody knowing me to being recognized everywhere. No matter what anyone says, you’re not prepared for that.”
Springfield says he’s currently working on the follow-up to his last album, 2023’s Automatic, and promises it will feature plenty of guitars.
“There will definitely be guitars on this next record… and lots of them,” he wrote in his Instagram post.
They will undoubtedly include some of the axes shown in his Instagram post, one of which — a baritone — belongs to famed session guitarist Tim Pierce. Springfield borrowed it but has yet to return it.
“Guitars are like borrowing records,” he writes. “You borrow them and never give them back. Tim, if you read this, I’m kidding.”
Of course, it’s still hard to keep Springfield off the road. His 2026 touring schedule is filling up, and he’s already added three new dates.
