Working Class Dog | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 1981 | |||
Recorded | 1980–1981 | |||
Studio | Sound City, Van Nuys, California | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 32:11 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer | Rick Springfield, Bill Drescher, Keith Olsen | |||
Rick Springfield chronology | ||||
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Singles from Working Class Dog | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Working Class Dog is the fifth studio album by Australian rock musician Rick Springfield, released by RCA Records in 1981. The album was certified Platinum in the United States and eventually sold over three million US copies. It produced Springfield's biggest career hit with the #1 million-selling song, "Jessie's Girl". Springfield was awarded the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male.
The album was re-released on CD in 2006 as a "25th anniversary edition" with three bonus tracks.
All tracks written by Rick Springfield except as indicated.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Love Is Alright Tonite" | 3:28 | |
2. | "Jessie's Girl" | 3:14 | |
3. | "Hole in My Heart" | 3:12 | |
4. | "Carry Me Away" | 3:01 | |
5. | "I've Done Everything for You" | Sammy Hagar | 3:17 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
6. | "The Light of Love" | 2:43 |
7. | "Everybody's Girl" | 2:59 |
8. | "Daddy's Pearl" | 2:37 |
9. | "Red Hot & Blue Love" | 2:57 |
10. | "Inside Sylvia" | 4:43 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
11. | "Easy to Cry" (previously unreleased) | 3:33 |
12. | "Taxi Dancing" (original version, previously unreleased [3] ) | 3:35 |
13. | "Jessie's Girl" (demo version) | 3:11 |
The album cover features a picture of a Bull Terrier [4] dog dressed in a white shirt with a black tie. [5] The dog was Springfield’s pet named Ronnie, and he briefly cameoed in the music video for "Jessie's Girl". Ronnie would later be featured in the cover art of his owner's next album Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet . Working Class Dog's cover (credited to Mike Doud) was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Album Package" in 1981. [6] The 2011 Jonathan Coulton song "Je Suis Rick Springfield" makes reference to the album cover. Ronnie passed away in 1994. [7]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [12] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [13] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Richard Lewis Springthorpe, known professionally as Rick Springfield, is an Australian-American musician and actor. He was a member of the pop rock group Zoot from 1969 to 1971, then started his solo career with his debut single, "Speak to the Sky", which reached the top 10 in Australia in mid-1972. When he moved to the United States, he had a No. 1 hit with "Jessie's Girl" in 1981 in both Australia and the US, for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He followed with four more top 10 US hits: "I've Done Everything for You", "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Affair of the Heart" and "Love Somebody". Springfield's two US top 10 albums are Working Class Dog (1981) and Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982).
Daryl Hall & John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, were an American rock duo formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1970. Daryl Hall was generally the lead vocalist, while John Oates primarily supplied electric guitar and backing vocals. The two wrote most of the songs they performed, either separately or in collaboration. They achieved their greatest fame from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s with a fusion of rock music, soul music, and rhythm and blues.
Daniel Earl Hartman was an American pop rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, and songwriter and original frontman for several bands, including The Soploids, Mak and the Turnarounds, Our Wringer, Last Wing, and Orion. Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire", "Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature". "I Can Dream About You", his most successful US hit, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 in 1985. The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, reached No. 4 on March 1, 1986.
Street Songs is the fifth studio album by American musician Rick James, released in April 1981 on Gordy Records. It contained two of James's biggest hits: the singles "Give It to Me Baby" and "Super Freak".
"Jessie's Girl" is a song written and performed by Australian singer Rick Springfield. It was released on the album Working Class Dog, which was released in February 1981. The song is about unrequited love and centres on a young man in love with his best friend's girlfriend.
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"I've Done Everything for You" is a song written and performed by Sammy Hagar, and released as a single in 1978. A version by Rick Springfield in 1981 became a top 10 hit in the US. In addition to recorded versions by Hagar and Springfield, the song has been performed and recorded by numerous bands, including Buckcherry.
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Neil Thomas Giraldo is an American musician, record producer, arranger, and songwriter best known as the musical partner of Pat Benatar since 1979 – and spouse since 1982. He has also performed, written and produced for artists including Rick Derringer, John Waite, Rick Springfield, Kenny Loggins, Steve Forbert, The Del-Lords, Scott Kempner, and Beth Hart. Giraldo's diverse work has sold over 45 million records and his contributions have produced five Grammy Awards and an additional four Grammy nominations. In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Benatar.
...he came out with Working Class Dog, an album of solidly punchy power-pop...
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