First of all, there was never a Jessie. It was Gary: a guy in Rick Springfield’s stained glass art class who had a gorgeous girlfriend-who was also in the class–that Rick was in lust with.

Unfortunately, they were never introduced. Apparently, Rick chickened out…repeatedly.

He never even learned her name, but he was so enamored, he sat down and wrote “Gary’s Girl.”

Well, he immediately realized that “Gary” just didn’t sound right, so he changed it to Jessie’ Girl.”

In 1981, when the song was released as a single (from the album “Working Class Dog”), it not only went to #1 in Rick’s native Australia, it reached the top spot at all three of America’s chart-based magazines at the time: Billboard, Cashbox, and & Record World–a very rare event!

Then, 15 years later, In 2006, VH-1 ranked “Jessie’s Girl” at #20 on their list of the “Greatest Songs of the ’80s.”

And here’s an interesting epilogue: At one point, Oprah Winfrey made an effort to find the girl, but discovered that the teacher of the class had passed away, and his class records had been destroyed!

So to this day, whoever Jessie’s–I mean Gary’s–Girl was, there’s no way of knowing if she knew about ANY of this! Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield: a Great Song of 1981!