Creator Area
Sign in Creator Area

Guitar Songs, Tabs & Lessons

Rick Springfield

2 guitar songs · Tabs, Lessons & Tone Guide Pop Rock

Choose a Rick Springfield Song to Play

Artist Overview

History and Guitar Legacy

Rick Springfield is an Australian born singer, songwriter, and guitarist who became a Pop Rock star in the early 1980s. He played in Australian rock bands during the late 1960s and early 1970s before moving to the United States. Springfield brought a hard edged rock sensibility to his polished pop production, drawing influences from Classic Rock, power pop, and New Wave. He has always been the primary guitarist on his records, handling riffs, rhythm parts, and solos throughout his career.

Playing Style and Techniques

Springfield's rhythm playing emphasizes economy and melodicism with tight, punchy tones using clean to crunchy textures, precise palm muting, and open chord voicings. His lead work is tasteful and melodic rather than technically flashy, featuring pentatonic based lines with strong vibrato, well timed bends, and memorable phrasing. The solo in 'Jessie's Girl' exemplifies his approach: a recognizable guitar moment that serves the song while demonstrating genuine skill and understanding of solo construction.

Why Guitarists Study Rick Springfield

Springfield's catalog teaches essential rock guitar fundamentals through his balanced approach to rhythm and lead playing. His work demonstrates how to write solos that prioritize musicality and song service over speed or complexity. Learning his songs provides accessible, recognizable material while building understanding of clean tone production, dynamic phrasing, and how to construct memorable guitar moments within pop rock frameworks.

Difficulty and Learning Path

Springfield's work sits at intermediate level. His rhythm parts suit advancing beginners with power chords, barre chords, and syncopated strumming patterns that teach rhythmic lockstep with drums. His solos demand more developed technique including accurate bending, controlled vibrato, and smooth fretboard positioning. 'Jessie's Girl' specifically challenges intermediate players with fast pentatonic runs and tricky harmonic sections, making it rewarding for those advancing beyond basic lead playing.

What Makes Rick Springfield Essential for Guitar Players

  • Springfield's rhythm guitar style is built on tight palm-muted power chords and bright open-position chord shapes, often switching between the two within the same song for dynamic contrast. This makes his material great practice for developing your muting precision and strumming dynamics.
  • The "Jessie's Girl" solo is a masterclass in melodic rock soloing, it uses A minor pentatonic runs, strong whole-step bends with vibrato, and a signature natural harmonic passage that creates an instantly recognizable hook. Learning it will sharpen your bending accuracy and phrasing instincts.
  • Springfield frequently employs a clean-to-crunch tone palette, using the guitar's volume knob to ride between sparkling cleans on verses and gritty drive on choruses. This volume-knob control technique is essential for any rock guitarist who wants expressive dynamics without pedal-tap dancing.
  • His lead playing favors the minor pentatonic and natural minor scales, typically staying in one or two positions rather than running up and down the neck. This positional discipline makes his solos sound focused and singable, a great habit for intermediate players to develop.
  • Springfield's use of double-tracked rhythm guitars in the studio creates a thick, wide sound that's deceptively simple. When learning his songs for live performance, pay attention to how single-guitar arrangements need to fill the same space, this teaches you a lot about choosing the right voicings and using effects to compensate.

Did You Know?

Springfield played all the guitar parts on "Jessie's Girl" himself, including that iconic solo, it wasn't a session player, which surprises many people who assumed a pop star would hire out the lead work.

The famous solo in "Jessie's Girl" was reportedly recorded in just a couple of takes. Springfield has said he wanted it to feel spontaneous and urgent rather than overly rehearsed, which is why it has that raw, slightly aggressive energy.

Before his pop breakthrough, Springfield played in the Australian hard rock band Zoot, where he developed a much heavier playing style. That hard rock foundation is audible in his aggressive picking attack even on his poppiest material.

Springfield is a devoted Fender player but has frequently used Gibson and other guitars in the studio, choosing instruments based on the tone a specific track needed rather than brand loyalty.

The harmonic squeals in the "Jessie's Girl" solo were inspired by early Van Halen recordings, Springfield was a huge Eddie Van Halen fan and incorporated that influence into his pop-rock context.

In live performances, Springfield often cranks his amp harder than the studio recordings suggest, giving his tone a grittier, more aggressive edge that reveals his rock roots beneath the polished production.

Springfield has cited George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Jeff Beck as his primary guitar influences, an eclectic mix that explains his blend of melodic sensibility, rhythmic precision, and occasional blues-inflected phrasing.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Working Class Dog album cover
Working Class Dog 1981

This is the essential Springfield album for guitarists, it contains "Jessie's Girl" with its legendary solo, plus tracks like "I've Done Everything for You" and "Love Is Alright Tonite" that showcase punchy rhythm work, catchy riff construction, and tasteful lead playing. It's a compact masterclass in pop-rock guitar economy where every note counts.

Spotify Apple Music
Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet album cover
Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet 1982

The follow-up to Working Class Dog features heavier guitar tones and more adventurous arrangements. Tracks like "Don't Talk to Strangers" and "What Kind of Fool Am I" offer meatier rhythm parts with more aggressive palm-muting and crunchier lead tones, making this album ideal for intermediate players looking to add some edge to their pop-rock vocabulary.

Spotify Apple Music
Living in Oz album cover
Living in Oz 1983

Springfield pushed his guitar work harder on this record, with "Affair of the Heart" and "Human Touch" featuring layered guitar textures, syncopated riffing, and new wave-influenced clean tones. It's a great study in how to integrate guitar with synthesizer-heavy arrangements without losing your presence in the mix, a skill that's still relevant today.

Spotify Apple Music

Tone & Gear

Guitar

Rick Springfield is most closely associated with Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, particularly a black Fender Stratocaster with a maple neck that became his visual signature during the early '80s. He's also used Gibson Les Pauls in the studio for thicker tones on heavier tracks. In more recent years, he's played various custom and boutique instruments, but the Strat remains his go-to for the bright, cutting tone that defines his biggest hits.

Amp

Springfield has primarily used Fender tube amps and Marshall stacks throughout his career. In the studio for Working Class Dog, clean-to-moderately-overdriven Fender-style amps provided the chimey rhythm tones, while Marshall-style amplification was pushed harder for lead work and heavier sections. Live, he's favored cranked tube amps for natural breakup, keeping the gain moderate to retain note clarity and pick dynamics.

Pickups

On his Stratocasters, Springfield used stock Fender single-coil pickups, which give him that bright, snappy attack and the clear note separation audible on tracks like "Jessie's Girl." The bridge single-coil is key to his cutting lead tone, lower output pickups keep the dynamics responsive and ensure bends and vibrato come through with clarity rather than getting compressed. When using humbuckers on Les Pauls, the warmer midrange thickens up rhythm parts.

Effects & Chain

Springfield's effects usage is relatively minimal and song-serving. His core setup includes a mild overdrive or boost pedal to push the amp into crunch territory for solos, chorus for the shimmery clean tones heard on verses and arpeggiated sections, and occasional delay for lead lines, typically a short slapback or moderate repeat. He's not a pedal-heavy player; most of his tone comes from the guitar-to-amp relationship, with effects used as subtle seasoning rather than the main course.

Recommended Gear

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Rick Springfield's signature black Strat with maple neck delivers the bright, snappy single-coil tone that defines hits like 'Jessie's Girl,' with its bridge pickup providing the cutting attack essential to his lead work. The responsive dynamics of stock Fender pickups let his bends and vibrato shine without compression.

Fender Telecaster
Guitar

Fender Telecaster

Springfield uses the Telecaster for its punchy, articulate rhythm tones and cutting highs that complement his pop-rock songwriting, offering an alternative bright voice when the Strat's character needs variation without sacrificing clarity.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

On studio tracks requiring thicker, warmer tones, Springfield's Les Paul humbuckers add midrange depth to heavier rhythm sections while maintaining the note definition his style demands, bridging his pop sensibilities with harder rock textures.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

The Les Paul Custom's premium construction and voice give Springfield a refined, higher-output platform for studio work where he needs richer sustain and warmth beyond the Strat's snap, enhancing dramatic arrangement shifts.

How to Practice Rick Springfield on GuitarZone

Every Rick Springfield song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Jessie's Girl - Guitar TabPractice Jessie's Girl Guitar Solo Lesson - Famous Solos - Guitar Lesson