Rick Springfield revealed the backstory to his 1981 chart-topper and signature hit, "Jessie's Girl." Springfield talked about the tune on AXS TV's new music series, Mixtape, which "puts the spotlight on a different rock icon each week as they sit down to discuss their favorite songs and share their own personal 'mixtape' of meaningful music that shaped their lives and careers." Mixtape airs on AXS TV Thursdays at 8:30 ET.
In the episode, which airs tonight (September 26th) Springfield recalled hanging out at a stained glass shop in Pasadena, where he met the woman that inspired the song that snagged him the 1981 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal: "The reason I kept going was because there was this girl there that was burnin' hot. And she had a boyfriend, his name was Gary, and she didn’t want anything to do with me. So I took my sexual angst home and wrote a song about her. And I tried 'Gary’s Girl,' but it didn’t ring -- and I actually had the original lyric sheet and I changed it to 'Randy's Girl.' I’d actually started writing 'Randy is a friend,' and halfway through that line I thought, 'Y'know what? that's. . .' Mmm, no."