Songoftheday 4/7/12 - You're seein' some slick Continental dude....

Rick Springfield - "Don't Talk To Strangers"
from the album Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (four weeks)

Today's Song of the Day is my an Australian rocker that floundered in musical obscurity until a role on an American soap opera made him a heartthrob star. Rick Springfield started out as a "flower-power" rock artist, and had a top-20 US hit way back in 1972 with "Speak To The Sky". After that, nothing for almost a decade (there was blowback from rumors that the record company paid people to buy his records to better his chart standing).

But in 1981, after accepting a role in ABC's General Hospital as Dr. Noah Drake, Springfield found his audience both on TV and on the radio. His "Jessie's Girl" became a #1 hit, and GH has the go-to soap of the year. His second LP, slyly titled Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet, was his highest-charting album, and clearly nobody had to be paid to buy it (including my sister). "Don't Talk to Strangers" was the first single, which according to Springfield was about his insecurity of leaving his girlfriend behind on the road. Mind you, he later documented all the philandering he did, but, you know, um, yeah.



Tomorrow: Bogie and Bacall stop by.