Remembering “Human Touch” by Rick Springfield

Some strange sounds come out of the Claresholm Arena in the town I live in. Today was a very good example. It is Family Day, a day created by our provincial government intended for Albertans to spend time with their families. I went down to the rink to take some pictures of parents skating with their children.

At first, when I entered the arena and passed through the foyer, I didn’t hear it.

However, once I got on one of the players’ bench to set up in my usual perch for these sorts of things, the sound was unmistakable.

My boss’s daughter and her boyfriend were there too, and I looked at her.

“This song is 40 years old,” I exclaimed.

She nodded. She knew that too.

I was surprised to hear it because it wasn’t an iconic song, much less one I ever heard at the rink.

But there it was, “Human Touch” by Rick Springfield, playing over the arena sound system.

The in-between song
When I first heard it, I kind of laughed. It really wasn’t that long ago that I blogged about Rick Springfield’s last big hit “Love Somebody”.

I had referenced how I had listened to a lot of Rick Springfield before that, because he had been a staple of the junior high dance. Beyond his signature song “Jessie’s Girl”, he had “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “I’ve Done Everything for You”, and “Love is All Right Tonight”.

It made me think, where does “Human Touch” fit in, because I do remember that song from my junior high days. In particular, I remember my neighbour Mike talking about it.

So, I had to look it up.

Rick Springfield broke out with his “Working Class Dog” album in 1981. It was the one with “Jessie’s Girl”, “Love is All Right Tonight”, and “I’ve Done Everything for You”. His next album “Success Hasn’t Spoiled me Yet” came out in 1982 and produced another big hit in “Don’t Talk to Strangers”.

I also knew “Love Somebody” came out in 1984 on the soundtrack album for “Hard to Hold”.

So where did “The Human Touch” fit in?

Well, Rick Springfield was even more prolific than I remembered. It came out in 1983 off his album entitled “Living in Oz”.

It came out between “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “Love Somebody”.

It was the in-between song.

The song
“Human Touch” peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, not as successful as the other songs. Interestingly, it also peaked at number 23, making it his most successful song in the United Kingdom. In fact, “Human Touch” was his only top 40 song in the United Kingdom. None of those others cracked the top 40.

It just shows you every country has its own unique taste.

Parting thoughts
I listened to “Human Touch” again when I got back to my office, and it does have a catchy riff. It has actually been an ear worm much of the day as I have been working writing news stories.

It made me think of a couple things. One thing is that, looking at the lyrics, Rick Springfield uses some interesting word choices. They are more complicated than repeating the same phrases over and over. He does that too, but his verses are really interesting to listen to. I first noticed that when I watched “Hard to Hold”. My spouse has a tough time hearing the TV sometimes, so we always have on the closed caption. Reading his song lyrics while they played gave me a new perspective.

The other thing is that I never give enough credit to my neighbour Mike for the influence he had on me when it came to music. That was really the case in 1982 and 1983 before I really got into music in 1984.

“Human Touch” came out in June of 1983 when we would have been in the summer between Grade 8 and Grade 9.

Today, I could actually hear him singing the chorus of “Human Touch” in my mind’s eye as well.

I am still curious as to how that particular song ended up on the sound system at the Claresholm Arena, when the vast majority of children and their parents weren’t even born when it came out.

Maybe Rick Springfield has a little more staying power than I thought.

Or maybe it’s just a random playlist from Spotify.