Welcome to a Walkman-melting, battery-sapping countdown of teen comedy soundtrack cuts assembled by Mike “McBeardo” McPadden, author of TEEN MOVIE HELL: A Crucible of Coming-of-Age Comedies from Animal House to Zapped! This is your Teen Movie Hell mixtape. Crank it carefully—and use it extremely unwisely!
Track #7. RICK SPRINGFIELD, “The American Girl” from Private School…for Girls (1983)
Rick Springfield’s 1981 breakout LP Working Class Dog is a power pop masterpiece that doesn’t always get proper credit for its power—because, ironically, its pop proved too powerful! After “Jessie’s Girl,” there was simply no way General Hospital‘s Dr. Noah Drake could just remain a cult figure on par with Nick Lowe and Dwight Twilley.
“The American Girl,” Springfield’s deft donation to the Private School soundtrack, is pure Rick for Phoebe Cates people, and the song’s adroit underscoring in this clip of a leeringly photographed outdoor aerobics class only compounds everything that’s great about Rick, Phoebe, the movie, the moment, and all other things that feel right at home in Teen Movie Hell.
Get ready for summer—listen to the complete Teen Music Hell playlist and pick up the book TEEN MOVIE HELL right here:
