It’s literally late, late at night. All the kids are sleeping and I put this blog together today because I felt compelled to do so after reading Rick Springfield’s “Late, Late at Night” memoir and finding myself sea
rching through the Internet to find the songs in the book – both those that I sang along to countless times when I was younger and those that I wasn’t familiar with. I was surprised that I still remembered so many of the lyrics to songs from his earlier albums, back when my bedroom walls were covered with Rick Springfield posters and I’d listen to the albums over and over again (long before CDs). This blog is dedicated to my 13-year-old self who would have totally done something like this had blogs, YouTube and the Internet existed at the time. And also to Rick Springfield for many years of great music! (And thanks to all the wonderful Rick Springfield fans who have brought all these resources to said blogs and YouTube videos so I could find them!) It’s based on Rick Springfield’s memoir “Late, Late at Night” and provides links to the songs in the book, presented by chapter.
Chapter One: Three Wishes
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick Springfield, TVTags: General Hospital, I've Done Everything For You, Inside Sylvia, Jessie's Girl, Love is Alright Tonight, Six Million Dollar Man, Working Class Dog
Glendale, California, 1980
First paid acting role as a Roller Derby skater on the ’70s show “The Six Million Dollar Man.”
Demos brought to the RCA meeting: “Easy to Cry“, “Television” and “Love is Alright Tonight”
Living in Oz: 1960
First recording session: “Billy’s Bikey Boys” by Wickedy Wak.
Joins Zoot. One of the songs they play is The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. Catchy stuff, like “1x2x3x4.” Here’s one more, “Hey Pinky.”
Chapter Seven: Fame and Famine
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick SpringfieldTags: Alyson, Beginnings, Speak to the Sky
In hospital: 1970-1972
Rick Springfield’s first solo hit: “Speak to the Sky”
A video from that time, “Hooky Joe”
The story behind the song, “Alyson,” which is on the album Living in Oz.
Chapter Eight: Illegal (Hollywood Sex-Rat) Alien
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick SpringfieldTags: Beginnings, Born Out of Time, Comic Book Heroes, Love is the Key, Mission: Magic, Misty Water Woman, Sonny and Cher, Speak to the Sky, The Liar, The Unhappy Ending, Weep No More, What Would the Children Think?, Why Are You Waiting?
London/New York/Hollywood: 1972-1975
“What Would the Children Think?”
Guest on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
Star of the TV cartoon “Mission: Magic,” where he got to write some pop songs, such as “Love is the Key”
“Why Are You Waiting?” (about fail of failure)
“Misty Water Woman” (about dead woman coming back to life)
“Weep No More” (about young girls getting pregnant out of wedlock)
“The Liar” (about a girl caught up in drugs)
“Born Out of Time” (about Greta Garbo)
(In “Late, Late at Night,” Rick Springfield calls the songs from “Comic Book Heroes” “more light teenage fare that the twelve-year-old readers of 16 Magazine can readily identify with”). Ha, love that tongue-in-cheek humor.
Chapter 10: The Americanization of Ricky
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick Springfield, TVTags: American Bandstand, Battlestar Galactica, Old Gangsters Never Die, Take a Hand, The Incredible Hulk, The Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Rockford Files, The Six Million Dollar Man, Wait for Night, Wonder Woman
San Fernando Valley: 1978
Guest star roles on various ’70s TV shows such as Battlestar Galactica, The Rockford Files, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman. The Six Million Dollar Man and The Nancy Drew Mysteries.
“Old Gangstsers Never Die” on American Bandstand.
Chapter 12: What’s the Point of Being a Doctor If Everybody Dies?
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick SpringfieldTags: April 21 1984, I've Done Everything For You, Jessie's Girl, Working Class Dog
Opposite Ends of the Earth: L.A. and Australia: 1981
Chapter 13: We Have Ignition
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick SpringfieldTags: April 24th 1981, Don't Talk to Strangers, I've Done Everything For You, Love is Alright Tonite, Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet, What Kind of Fool Am I? I Get Excited
On the Road: The ’80s
Chapter 14: Sex, More Sex, and Rock and Roll (No Real Drugs to Speak Of)
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick SpringfieldTags: Affair of the Heart, Alyson, Bop 'til You Drop, Celebrate Youth, Dance This World Away, Hard to Hold, Human Touch, I Can't Stop Hurting You, Like Father Like Son, Living in Oz, Love Somebody, Me and Johnny, Motel Eyes, My Father's Chair, State of the Heart, Tao
Around the World in 80 Weeks: 1984-1985
Looking at his past: “Alyson,” “Me and Johnny,” “Like Father, Like Son”
How he’s dealing with fame: “Motel Eyes,” “Living in Oz, “Human Touch”
And how it’s all affecting his relationship with his fiancee (who is now his wife): “I Can’t Stop Hurting You,” “Affair of the Heart”
Chapter 15: My Depression
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Music, Rick SpringfieldTags: Honeymoon in Beirut, Rock of Life, World Start Turning
