A magpie whose visual instincts made him an MTV fixture well into the High Reagan era, Rick Springfield is an odd duck, his talents still unappreciated. I distrust power pop, yet “Love is Alright Tonight,” his Hagar cover, and especially “Jessie’s Girl” were taut, snotty delights in the radio doldrums of 1981-1982. Then he discovered the aural correlatives between his music and visuals, adopting synths perhaps three years too late but writing pretty good self-reflexive moves like “Human Touch.” I suppose Hard to Hold went into production at the same time as Eddie and the Cruisers; certainly the notion of a rock ‘n’ roller (who moonlighted as a soap opera heart throb) playing a rock ‘n’ roller had commercial possibilities in 1984, a year when mythologies about rock got power rotation on MTV (“Love Somebody” is as climactic as period Cars).
And he kept going. Did you know he scored three top thirty singles in 1985? His last in 1988? His 2004 album, Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance, drenched in psychobabble, happened to be pretty good.
Meh
Calling All Girls
Bop Till You Drop
State of the Heart
What Kind of Fool Am I?
Celebrate Youth
Rock of Life
Sound, Solid
Affair of the Heart
Human Touch
Speak for the Sky
Bruce
I Get Excited
Souls
Don’t Walk Away
Good to Great
Don’t Talk to Strangers
Jessie’s Girl
Love Somebody
I’ve Done Everything for You
Love is Alrite Tonight
Humanizing The Vacuum 
If you liked 2004’s SDAA, check out 2016’s Rocket Science and especially 2018’s The Snake King.