More on Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield was one of the most popular Rock and Roll singers of the 1970s and 1980s.  His most popular and well-known song is Jesse's Girl, which was released in 1981.  The song became a #1 hit in Australia and the United States.  It also won Springfield a Grammy Award in 1981.
Springfield also performed the song on General Hospital, on which he played Dr. Noah Drake 

Springfield wrote the song about an experience he had in college. Most songwriters choose write about their personal experiences. This song deals with only one simple situation, which is being in love with someone that is in love with someone else.  Most people have had someone in their lives that they had strong feelings for and they couldn't do anything about it because they were in a relationship already.  That's the feeling that Springfield gives in his hit song.  In his college days, he was smitten with his friend Gary's girlfriend. He wanted to use Gary's name in his song but changed the name of the guy to Jessie after seeing a girl with that name on her jersey.  Springfield did not want to let his friend know about his feelings for his girlfriend, so he simply changed the name of the man in the song.

The video follows the formula of most videos where they show band and story scenes.  The shows scenes to where Springfield is watching the happy couple and him feeling low when he breaks his bathroom mirror.  In between the story scenes, the band is shown performing the song in front of the brick wall.  Each story and band scene runs one after the other, which is what most music video do.

The chart below shows the different parts of the Rick Springfield video.  It explains how the video works and what the lyrics are supposed to mean.

Codes Visualized	Illustration	Amplification	Disjuncture
Lyrics	The song illustrates a man's desire to be with his best friend's girlfriend	The smashing of the mirror represents the fustration has for wondering why the object of his affections doesn't want him	None
Music	The band consist of Springfield as the lead singer and guitarist, a second guitarist/ backup singer, and a guy on drums	"Patty Is Jessie's Girl". the writing on the wall represents what the narrator of the song wants, which is Patty	None
Performance	The band performs in front of a spray-painted wall. Sometimes the band is seen with Springfield or he plays it himself.	Other than the scenes in front of the brick wall, the video shows Springfield watching his friend and girlfriend.  Shows that he envies what his friend has.	The video shows the band performing with Springfield in between the scenes of the story