PROFESSOR OF ROCK Investigates The Inspiration Behind RICK SPRINGFIELD's #1 Hit "Jessie's Girl" In New One-On-One Interview

If you’re a child of the '80s, "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield was like a rite of passage. The song went to #1 the day MTV launched with a music video perfect for the channel. Springfield sat down with the Professor Of Rock and revealed the inspiration behind the song and album, Working Class Dog,, and how he had to shatter 24 mirrors to get it right. 

Children Of Bodom famously covered "Jessie's Girl" on their Holiday At Lake Bodom: 15 Years Of Wasted Youth Album, released in 2012. It features guest vocals by Thunderstone's Pasi Rantanen.

In 2020, Coheed And Cambria teamed up with Rick Springfield in the sequel to one of the most iconic stories in rock ‘n’ roll history with “Jessie’s Girl 2”. The track, which finds the two extending the narrative of “Jessie’s Girl” with some unexpected twists. Featuring both Springfield and the band, the video comically explores the unexpected and diabolical nature of Jessie’s girl, proving that things are not always as they seem.

Coheed And Cambria vocalist / guitarist Claudio Sanchez wonders, “Has anyone ever written a sequel to another artist’s song?" He continues, "I don’t think so. As a fan of movies, it just seemed like a really interesting idea.” The song’s concept evolves around the premise that ‘he got the girl’ and asks, ‘where are they now?’ Let’s just say it’s not a fairytale ending, as Sanchez surmises, “it’s kind of like a National Lampoon’s movie meets So I Married an Axe Murderer.”

The genesis of “Jessie’s Girl 2” dates back to Coheed And Cambria studio sessions from 2019, when the band began riffing on an idea as Sanchez extemporaneously sang the hook from Springfield’s 1981 Billboard Hot 100 #1 smash. A germ of an idea was planted as Sanchez pondered, “what if a band created a sequel for a song that wasn’t originally theirs?” After fleshing out new lyrics and tinkering with the concept (even considering a future album of likeminded material called “Sequels”), the band revisited the idea during their time spent at home quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Sanchez pitched the idea to Springfield on IG Live. As the song started coming together, they sent it off to Springfield and upon hearing it, the legendary singer agreed to pick up where he left off almost forty years ago, and feature on the song. “Jessie’s Girl 2” looks at what could have been by flipping the timeless anthem of unrequited love on its head, further broadening the legacy of this songbook essential which earned Springfield the 1982 Grammy Award in the category of “Best Rock Male Vocal Performance.”