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The Oprah Winfrey Show  |  February 26, 2008
Rick Springfield performs 'Jessie's Girl.'

 

Oprah asks Rick the question on everyone's mind—is Jessie's girl a real person? "Oh, yeah," Rick says. "All my songs start from a core of a relationship." Although his fantasy girl was real, Jessie wasn't. "Her boyfriend's name was actually Gary and not Jessie, but Gary just somehow didn't sing right," Rick says. "So I changed it to Jessie."

Watch Watch Rick perform his number one hit, "Jessie's Girl."

Rick can't say Gary's girl's name—because he can't remember what it was! "I was never really introduced to her. It was always just, like, panting from afar," he says. To this day, Rick thinks Gary's girl doesn't know the famous song is all about her. "As far as I know, she doesn't know," he says. "And I lost contact with them before the song came out."

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