From Zoot to Solo Stardom and Back

Rick Springfield came to the attention of Australians when he played with the band Zoot in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

Zoot was formed in 1964 as ‘Times Unlimited’ and then became ‘Down the Line’ until becoming Zoot in 1967.

The band gained attention for their music and for dressing up in pink (Think Pink – Think Zoot) which made a lot of sense in the ‘bubblegum pop’ era and the look attracted a lot of teenage girls and women but it had also attracted a lot of homophobic taunts and occasional violence from men.

Their pink outfits and devotion to pink from pets to cars also hurt their attempts at getting credibility as a serious band.

Rick Springfield joined Darryl Cotton (Vocals), Beeb Birtles (Bass) and Rick Brewer (Drums) in 1969 as Zoot’s new lead guitarist and one major change that he wanted was the end of the pink outfits which was soon carried out.

One of Zoot’s best known recordings is a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and they had given the song the rock treatment which worked as it peaked at No. 4 on the Kent Music Report.

Zoot also recorded original material with the Rick Springfield composition ‘Hey Pinky’, the song was memorable as they expressed their feelings about the pink clothing days, former management and those who do not like them.

The song is also memorable as the band shown off their naked butts for an advertisement in the music newspaper Go-Set, showing butts must be an Australian music thing as Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs done the same thing but for the packaging of their album ‘More Arse Than Class’ a couple of years later.

Zoot released one album, one EP and seven singles between 1968 and 1971 with all seven singles and the album (Just Zoot) charting.

Zoot disbanded in 1971 and Rick scored a couple more hits in Australia before going to the United States in mid-1972 where his run of success continued on starting with his album Beginnings peaking at No.35 in 1972 and singles ‘American Girls’  and ‘Take A Hand’ charting on the Hot 100 in 1974 and 1976.

The album ‘Wait for Night’ charted on the Billboard 200 in 1976 with the album peaking at No. 159 and this album would be his last album released in the 1970’s.

From 1977 he started appearing on TV and in movies, he played Zac in the 1978 movie Battlestar Galactica (The movie also became a two part episode of the TV show) and he also had roles in Six Million Dollar Man and The Incredible Hulk.

Zoot released the compilation Zoot Locker in 1980 and by this time of his career, Rick had four singles that had made it onto Billboard’s Hot 100.

The album ‘Working Class Dog’ was released in February 1981 and it was a success delivering Rick a Top Ten record on the Billboard 200 as it peaked at No. 7.

‘Jessie’s Girl’ was the first single from the album and it was a hit by making it to No. 1 on the Hot 100 and his next two singles peaked at No. 8 and No. 20, ‘Jessie’s Girl’ was also No. 1 in Australia.

1981 continued to be a big year for Rick as he first appeared on the show General Hospital as Noah Drake so fans had the choice of seeing him on TV, seeing him in person or listening to him anywhere they went.

He became a Grammy winner in 1982 after winning the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Male Performance with ‘Jessie’s Girl’ and he has been nominated an additional three times.

Rick has had fourteen albums chart in the United States and nine of those were in a row between 1976 and 1999, he also had twenty-one singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1971 and 1988.

Zoot reunited in 2011 on the Rick Springfield and Friends cruise and footage taken on the cruise was later released as Live – The Reunion.

Zoot lead singer Darryl Cotton died in 2012 and Live – The Reunion was released in 2013 before the band released Archaeology in 2018, this recent compilation features 24 tracks including a rendition of ‘Life In A Northern Town’ which was not previously released.

Rick releases albums regularly with the last album release being ‘Orchestrating My Life’ in 2019, this album features a mix of reworked classics of Rick’s and new songs such as ‘Irreplaceable’.

There are currently plans for Rick to rejoin Zoot with Rick Brewer and Beeb Birtles in late 2020, the band are planning to do four shows with Russell Morris fronting the band in honour of his friend Darryl Cotton.

That is the story of how Rick Springfield went from Zoot to Solo Stardom and back.