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Rick Springfield was born Richard Lewis Springthorpe in Merrylands, Sydney
AUSTRALIA, on August 23, 1949; at the age 10 he and his family moved to
England, meanwhile he started playing the guitar.
Springfield played in several short-lived outfits before he joined Zoot.
This band became popular in Australia in the early '70s with the cover
of "Eleanor Rigby".
In 1971, the singer+guitarist, left the group for his solo career and
his first single, "Speak To The Sky", reached the top 10 on
the Australian chart.
The following year Springfield recorded in London his first solo album,
"Beginnings"; the record cracked the top 40 on the U.S. Pop
Albums chart and "Speak To The Sky" peaked at #14 on the Pop
Singles chart.
Relocating to Los Angeles, in 1973 he released a second album, "Comic
Book Heroes", which sold poorly.
He followed it up with "Mission Magic" only a year later, an
album released in conjunction with a cartoon aired on ABC.
In 1976 Springfield recorded his fourth album, "Wait For Night",
it included the single "Take A Hand" which barely missed the
U.S. Top 40 chart.
During the next four years he took on acting roles in several TV shows
including "Rockford Files", "Wonder Woman" and "Battlestar
Galactica".
He returned to the music scene in 1981 with "Working Class Dog",
the record, released via RCA Records, rose to the #7 position on the U.S.
Top 200 LPs & Tapes chart scoring the smash hit single "Jessie's
Girl", the track peaked at #1 on the U.S. Pop chart and at #10 on
The Mainstream Rock list, it also topped the Australian chart and broke
the top 10 in Britain; the follow-up single, "I've Done Everything
For You", reached the #8 spot on the U.S. Pop chart and the final
single "Love Is Alright Tonite" entered the top 20 on the same
chart pushing the album to multi-platinum status. In early 1982 "Jessie's
Girl" was awarded a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance.
Springfield's next release, aptly titled, "Success Hasn't Spoiled
Me Yet", went straight to #1 on the Pop Albums chart in America spawning
no less than four hugely successful singles: "Don't Talk To Strangers"
peaked at #2 on the Pop Sales chart and at #11 on The Mainstream Rock
Tracks; "What Kind Of Fool Am I?" reached the #21 position on
the Pop Singles list, "I Get Excited" has also entered the Top
40 and "Calling All Girls" hit #4 on The Mainstream Rock chart.
1983's "Living In Oz" reached #12 on the U.S. Pop Albums chart
becoming his third straight platinum selling LP, it included "Affair
Of The Heart" which peaked at #9 on the Pop Singles chart, plus two
more top 40 hits: "Human Touch" and "Souls".
The next year saw Rick Springfield release an album of material from the
late '70s, the set titled "Beautiful Feelings" reached the #78
slot on The Billboard 200 Albums list spawning the American top 40 hit,
"Bruce"; he also finished his first feature-length movie, "Hard
To Hold", the soundtrack to this film tose to #16 on The Billboard
Top 200 Albums chart and contained several Springfield songs, including
"Love Somebody" which hit #5 on The Billboard Hot 100, "Bop
'Til You Drop" which cracked the top 20 and "Don't Walk Away"
reached #26 on the same chart.
He returned in 1985 with "Tao", his fifth album of new material
in five years, the record peaked at #21 on The Billboard Top 200 and generated
two American Top 40 singles: "State Of The Heart" and "Celebrate
Youth"; The Cathode Ray tour, including a performance at Live Aid,
followed.
After a two year hiatus from touring and recording Springfield issued
his ninth album, "Rock Of Life", in 1988, it sold poorly and
failed to rise higher than #55 in U.S. but the title-track hit #22 on
The Billboard Hot 100.
The following year he began work on a series of TV movies for both regular
and TV networks.
After nearly ten years of silence, Rick Springfield returned to recording
in the late '90s, in 1998 to be exact; the singer+guitarist recorded "Karma"
which was released in April of 1999 in the United States, but the album
scraped the bottom of The Billboard 200 list. He spent the remainder of
the year touring and promoting "Karma", during the summer tour
of 2000 Springfield recorded "The Greatest Hits Alive" which
was finally released in early 2001.
Springfield released a new studio-album, "Shock / Denial / Anger
/ Acceptance", in February 2004 on his own Gomer Records label, it
peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and the single
"Beautiful You" hit the top 30 of The Adult Contemporary chart.
Self-described by the artist as an eclectic mix that's warm and soulful,
his 2005's album, "The Day After Yesterday", featured Rick Springfield's
interpretations of all hit songs that, he says, “I wish I'd written”.
The CD came out in July that year with an accompanying radio-single, the
cover of Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings".
Springfield are back with a new album and a new single, called "What's
Victoria's Secret?".
Rick Springfield biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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