Yesterday I was looking for some old songs to download. Not just any old "old songs", but songs that got covered by later acts and still sounded as good as if not better than the originals. I got hold of Bratmobile's version of The Runaways classic "Cherry Bomb". I also got Love Spit Love's take on The Smiths' wicca anthem "How Soon Is Now" (yeah, the one that they used for the soundtrack of the 90's TV series "Charmed"). There was also L7's cover of Blondie's "Hanging On The Telephone". Yeah, I got a couple of goods ones.
But suddenly, out of nowhere, I remembered that Rick Springfield song in the 80's about whatsisname's girlfriend.
"Jessie's Girl" was included in Rick's 1981 album "Working Class Dog" and was a huge hit, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and winning Springfield a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. "Rock Vocal Performance"? Wasn't this dude a teenybop sensation?
Anyway, story goes that the song - which is obviously about unrequited love - was written based on Rick's actual life experience. Seems he had a friend named Gary (he changed the name to Jessie for the song after he saw a girl in a softball jersey with the name "Jessie" on it) who had a girlfriend he majorly crushed on. Jeez, that sounds so frickin familiar.
Oh, and speaking of "frickin", a band called Frickin A covered Jessie's Girl and did a good job.
So I ended up downloading two versions of Jessie's Girl: Rick Springfield's and Frickin A. Yeah, I know, Everclear also did a live cover of the song but, hey, I like Frickin A's better. Got a problem with that?
Check out these videos and decide which one you like better.
Frickin A - Jessie's Girl
Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl
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