David Fincher Start to Finish: Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield was a star when he hired David Fincher. In 1981, he broke out beyond a successful career in Australia with the monster hit “Jessie’s Girl,” a staple of ’80s greatest hits collections and a catchy anthem about a loser crushing on his buddy’s girlfriend. He followed it up a cover of Sammy Hagar’s “I’ve Done Everything For You” and three other Top 10 hits written or co-written by him. From 1981–83, he was also a popular soap star on General Hospital, alternating work on the show with touring with his band. A feature film must have seemed like the natural next step.

Hard to Hold, a sexy drama about a rock star, was not the critical or financial success that Springfield had hoped for, and is pretty much forgotten now. But it did spawn a pretty good soundtrack album, including Top 5 hit “Love Somebody.” Around this time, he also hired David Fincher for The Beat of the Live Drum¹, a concert film that incorporated a set of music videos for his newest songs.

The concert starts off with “An Affair of the Heart,” with Springfield on a stage that lets him walk into the crowd, a pretty conventional setup, though it’s fun to see stage lighting pre-LEDs and older stage mics. There are a few superimposed effects—big hands and beautiful women flying over the audience—and the audience is dressed in far too much red, white and blue for it to be coincidence. There’s a little crowd noise but much of the audio is clearly not recorded live, which is probably the weakest part of these concert segments. It’s not Cheap Trick at Budokan, that’s for sure.

Then the Jumbotron introduces the first proper music video (most of them start ‘onscreen’ but then go fullscreen for the rest of the video): “Celebrate Youth”, a black-white-and-spot of red video that looks like a dry run for some of Fincher’s later videos (think “Express Yourself” and “Vogue”). Springfield sings on a jungle gym, his red kerchief almost the only color in the video, while children (you guessed it) celebrate in a long hallway, a little boy plays in what looks like a Victorian attic, and another child sits alone in a chair. It’s not one of Springfield’s better songs, and the video is very clearly shot on, well, video. Still, the splashes of color–the kerchief, a blue pair of sneakers, a red balloon and a blue toy airplane—burst with life, and Fincher knew how to light a scene even then.

Next, another live performance: “Human Touch,”  with a costume change for Springfield and a fake blimp floating over the crowd for some reason. Springfield does some fairly awful choreography, reaches out to touch some hands in the crowd², the audience claps to a beat that doesn’t sync up with the music or lip-syncing. It’s kind of charming!

Another costume change, some real crowd noise and a live intro to “My Father’s Chair,” a song written about his father’s death. We see some very early computer animation as a ‘photo album’ comes up on the Jumbotron; we see photos of his dad on the screen as he plays piano and sings. The camera is at some odd angles for this one, one over him looking down, one very close to his face, and another one that I think is intended to mimic the view from front row. It’s meant to be quieter, and it is, but it’s not one of the more successful segments, unfortunately.

The crowd noise starts back up so we can hear the audience freak out for “Jessie’s Girl.” This one sounds like it was recorded at least partially and maybe wholly live, as he gets very, very close to lead guitarist Tim Pierce and kicks the song off. You’ve all heard this one, it’s his biggest hit. It holds up! The lyrics answer the question of why the narrator can’t find a woman like Jessie’s girl pretty neatly:

I’ve been funny, I’ve been cool with the lines
Ain’t that the way love’s supposed to be?

After that we go immediately to the video for “State of the Heart.”³ Springfield wears a stupid hat and sings about love. He’s fully dressed (though he does eventually lose the hat), and spends most of the video standing nearby or sitting at the edge of a hot tub with a fountain. We see a woman, but only in glimpses or silhouette. There are some nice close-ups on Springfield’s face as he sings, eventually there’s water drizzling all over…overall I have to agree with Renata Hearn of RickSpringfield.us, who says “I have no idea what anyone was going for in this video.” It is kind of pretty?

Then, thank heavens, we get to “Bop ‘Til You Drop.” Rick directs a robot uprising! Oddly, To the Beat of the Live Drum doesn’t show the full music video. Instead, a few clips are alternated with Springfield and the band performing live (it does look like the full video is probably playing on the Jumbotron, but it’s hard to tell). Maybe they thought it was too weird? It’s weird! Anyway, mostly we get Springfield performing live, and a weird little machine gets brought up on the stage for Springfield to stand on, so we know that we’re all sci-fi now. (Alternate theory: the videos are there when the audience isn’t sufficiently excited about the newer songs. This one is upbeat enough that the audience is pretty hyped, whether they know the song or not.) It’s about here that Fincher remembers there’s a drummer, and there are some great shots of him in the next few songs.

The full video probably should’ve written a check to Fairbanks Films and Ridley Scott. Maybe H.R. Giger, too. Anyway, it’s the first actual “story” video we’ve gotten from Fincher. Springfield is imprisoned in some kind of dystopian sci-fi mine, held hostage by weird lizard-y aliens (there’s some pretty good prosthetics and model work in this video, to be honest). He and his fellow prisoners orchestrate a prison break (they seem to be doing most of the work while he sings, but, you know. Music video). He gets to swing on some ropes and chains eventually, at least. It is extremely campy and a lot of fun.

Then it’s back to another live performance, “Don’t Talk to Strangers.” Another pretty straightforward performance, but I like this song a lot. Here’s the official video, not directed by Fincher, and so dark it could be a 2020s Netflix movie:

Next up is “Love Somebody,” and we seem to be free from outfit changes at this point–he’s been in a white button-up with the sleeves cut off for a while now, and it looks very ’80s with his blue jeans and mullet. “Love Somebody” shares a lot of sonic DNA with Bruce Springsteen, and I mean that as a compliment. This was the kickoff single from Hard to Hold, and it probably deserved a better movie. If you’re curious about Hard to Hold there are some clips in the official not-by-Fincher video for this song:

Springfield crawls along the stage so the girls can go wild, crawls up the mic stand, and then launches into “Souls.” Fincher likes shots where you can see Springfield’s mullet lit up like a halo. The performance is very dramatic, far more dramatic than the song deserves, to be honest. He falls over, the crowd screams, there’s some writhing, you get the idea. Let’s move on.

Now we get to another full video, and it’s definitely the most fun of these early videos, and Springfield’s own favorite. “Dance this World Away” is about nuclear winter, mostly. It alternates three scenarios: Springfield as the host of “The Uncle Dick Show,” a campy parody of a kids’ TV show; a post-apocalyptic hellscape with an angry orange sky where Springfield might be the sole survivor⁴; and a retro-style nightclub where Springfield is performing as a singer. The lounge scenes stand out and are probably my favorite: black and white dancers in a black-and-white ballroom, Rick standing out in a maroon tuxedo jacket and ruffled shirt, giving a sleazy, assured performance. “Uncle Dick” interacts with puppets and explains concepts like acid rain and the best way to hide from nuclear fallout. The hellscape is the least dramatically interesting but it’s fun visually, and Springfield makes the most of playing three very different characters. 

By the end of the video, the black-and-white party is dominated by a rocket that has risen in the center of the dance floor; the dancers pay it no attention, partying with no heed to the doomsday device in their midst. It’s giving Gilded Age, it’s giving eighties, it’s giving 2025. 

The audience applauds, Springfield gets one last costume change (his shirt’s black this time, but still sleeveless) and rallies the crowd for “Stand Up,” a peppy anthem that’s a good closer. It ends with Springfield smiling brightly and fireworks exploding over the stage.

There’s a lot of Fincher-to-come in this video: dramatic, assured lighting, the feeling that there’s a point of view behind the shots and perspective. Nothing here feels ragtag or half-assed, even that weird hot tub video. He’s got a big crew and he appears to have handled them very well. It’s not going to set the world on fire, but it definitely fits in well with the rest of his filmography.

Do you think Rick Springfield wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t given that Fincher kid a chance?

You can watch To the Beat of the Live Drum on YouTube, or watch the individual videos you’re interested in. “Dance” and “Bop” would be my recommendations.

1. Or To the Beat of the Live Drum. I’ve seen both. ↩︎
2. Lest you forget the song’s title… ↩︎
3. Another cover; I should note that most of Springfield’s hits were written or co-written by him. ↩︎
4. Did you know cows make friends? Er. Anyway. ↩︎