Don't Talk to Strangers

In a Songfacts interview with Rick Springfield, when we asked if there were any dark undercurrents in his songs, he replied: "The song 'Don't Talk To Strangers' was my girlfriend who became my wife. I was screwing around on the road, and I was worried that she was doing the same thing while I was away. So it was my paranoia to her: I'm getting laid, but don't you go do the same thing, because it'll really upset me." The girl in question is Barbara Porter, who was working at Sound City recording studios when she met Springfield. They got married in 1984 and had two children together.

The phrase "don't talk to strangers" is something children in America are told to keep them out of trouble. Springfield is Australian, but he moved to America in 1972.

This was the lead single from Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet, the follow-up to Springfield's breakthrough album Working Class Dog. The album title is apt: Springfield struggled throughout the '70s as both a singer and actor, then suddenly hit it big in both endeavors in 1981. Just a month after Working Class Dog was released, he started appearing on the popular soap opera General Hospital as Dr. Noah Drake. This regular role was a big step up from the guest appearances he was getting on shows like The Incredible Hulk and CHiPs (where he played "guy at accident scene"). By August, his song "Jessie's Girl" was #1 in America and he was a heartthrob to legions of homemakers who watched him on General Hospital. He was in his 30s when this all happened and was able to appreciate his good fortune and even poke fun at it. The Working Class Dog album cover has a memorable cover photo of his dog Ronnie dressed like he's about to go to work at IBM. On the Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet cover, Ronnie is in a limo enjoying the high life with some poodles. Springfield is his valet. Springfield told Songfacts that if you look carefully, you'll see a cocaine spoon hanging from Ronnie's collar.