A deep dive literary analysis of Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield

There's something very honest and raw about the emotion portrayed in the song "Jessie's Girl" that you don't normally hear. It's just Rick Springfield wallowing in pure unadulterated jealousy and pettiness, no attempts to justify it. I find that interesting. So let's treat this song with the absolute seriousness it deserves and go through the lyrics line by line: Jessie is a friend Yeah I know he's been a good friend of mine This introduction is a helpful way of framing what's to come. Jessie is no villain - he's a good friend, and Rick goes out of his way to make this point clear right from the outset. A lesser song would try to make it his fault somehow in order to morally justify the narrator. "He doesn't appreciate her like I would…" etc. There's none of that. It's quite telling that the song is called "Jessie's girl" and the first two lines are about Jessie. But lately something's changed That ain't hard to define Jessie's got himself a girl And I wanna make her mine Here the complication is introduced. Rick is attracted to his best friend's girlfriend. "I wanna make her mine" is a bit misleading. You might now expect him to explain his dastardly scheme to steal Jessie's girl. But as we'll discover, he has no such plan. And she's watching him with those eyes And she's lovin' him with that body, I just know it And he's holding her in his arms late, late at night... Here we really get the first insight into what is going on in Rick's head. He admits to the listener he's built a mental image of them having sex. "I just know it" is delivered in a way that's so deliciously bitter. You don't know anything, Rick! You're just tormenting yourself by imagining what they're doing! It goes into some pretty awkward territory most pop songs would never. Here we also get the only descriptions of the girl. She has eyes and a body. We don't know her name or anything else about her. The objectification of the girl is revealing - to Rick's inner psyche and to the values of the time. She's not a fully-realised person who Rick pines for. She is "Jessie's girl" - his possession, which Rick covets. You know I wish that I had Jesse's girl I wish that I had Jesse's girl Where can I find a woman like that? You know when you mishear a lyric and when you learn the correct lyric you actually preferred your version? I always thought Rick was singing "Why can't I find a woman like that?" which I preferred because it really fits the tone of him despairing and feeling sorry for himself. "Where can I…?" is actually a much more constructive question that suggests that he might even be willing to exercise some agency instead of just stewing in self pity. Maybe that's the one hint of a green shoot in an otherwise toxic landscape. But honestly, with this song, it feels more emotionally honest to just wallow in the sludge. I play along with the charade There doesn't seem to be a reason to change You know I feel so dirty When they start talking cute I wanna tell her that I love her But the point is probably moot We hear about Rick's continued discomfort at being the third wheel when he wishes it was him that was with the girl. He's performing friendship on the outside while enduring pain on the inside. We sense the damage this obsession is doing to his relationship with his valued friend, without Jessie even being aware of it. And I'm looking in the mirror all the time Wondering what she don't see in me I've been funny, I've been cool with the lines Ain't that the way love's supposed to be? Tell me, where can I find a woman like that? Rick turns the mirror on himself, literally. He sees his attractiveness as a kind of investment - he's funny, cool, has good lines, but can't understand why it hasn't produced the desired result. The way women are sung about in 80s pop songs can include a subtle misogyny and objectification and there's no exception here. Rick is a "nice guy" type, and we can see the negative impact it has on his own state of mind, his friendships, and his ability to relate to women. This is a bit of a retrofitted reading though because at face value I'm sure we're meant to sympathise with Rick. It was only a few years ago people started critiquing the "nice guy" trope for his entitled and transactional view of romance. But importantly, Jesse isn't rewarded for enduring all this angst. He doesn't get the girl by the end of the song and we know there's no chance of it ever happening. No one changes or learns a lesson. The chorus just repeats like an intrusive thought looping in Rick's head. The song is ostensibly about romantic longing but what Rick really wants is to be Jessie. It's Jessie who is the focus of most of the lyrics. This is male status anxiety more than anything. You could replace "girl" with "car" and the song would still work. Unjustified jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it's also a very human one. Most people have felt it at some point. But very few pop songs are willing to sit in it for three and a half minutes like Rick Springfield does without offering an excuse. For once, the guilty pleasure isn't yours for listening to it - the guilt is all his.