b. Richard Lewis Springthorpe, 23 August 1949, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The son of an army officer, Springfield’s musical interests developed while living in England in the early 60s; on his return to Australia he played guitar and piano in the house band of a Melbourne club. At the end of the 60s, Springfield played with the Jordy Boys, Rock House and the MPD Band before joining Zoot. The band had several hits with Springfield compositions and released two albums for Columbia Records (1969’s Just Zoot and the following year’s Zoot Out) before he turned solo with the number 1 single ‘Speak To The Sky’. He moved to the USA in 1972 where he was groomed to become a new teenybop idol and a new version of ‘Speak To The Sky’ was a Top 20 US hit.
After a contractual dispute kept him inactive for two years, Springfield joined Wes Farrell’s Chelsea label where Elton John’s rhythm section Dee Murray (bass) and Nigel Olsson (drums) backed him on Wait For The Night. The label collapsed and Springfield began a new career as a television actor. After guest appearances in The Rockford Files, Wonder Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man, he landed a leading role (Dr. Noah Drake) in the soap opera General Hospital. This exposure helped to give him a series of big US hits on RCA Records in 1981-82 including ‘Jessie’s Girl’ which reached number 1 and the Top 10 singles ‘I’ve Done Everything For You’, and ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’. The later hit ‘Love Somebody’ came from the 1984 movie Hard To Hold in which Springfield played a rock singer. The next year a reissue of one 1978 track (‘Bruce’; a tale about being mistaken for Bruce Springsteen) was a Top 30 hit.
Despite several more US Top 30 hits in the late 80s, Springfield albums fared less well although he remained prominent on American television screens with roles in a number of series, including Human Target, High Tide, and Robin’s Hoods. In 1998, Springfield released Karma, his first album of new music in over 10 years. Originally only available in Japan, the album was re-released worldwide the following year in a slightly different format. Further recordings followed in the new millennium with a live greatest hits set and 2004’s Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance. He returned to General Hospital in the role of Noah Drake at the end of 2005.
