One never likes to speak of a musician’s success in the past tense, but there was a time when Australian, Rick Springfield, was a big thing on the music scene in the 80s. His song, “Jessie’s Girl,” was a big hit in 1981 in both Australia and the U.S. and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He followed up with four more top ten hits in the US. As an aside, Springstein also acted. He appeared in several TV shows in the 90s, had a role in the TV soap, General Hospital, and starred as Lucifer in season 12 of the American TV show Supernatural. 

His 1982 album, Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, went Platinum in the United States, and produced three top 40 singles.  The album cover was a play on Springstein’s previous album, “Working Class Dog” which featured a Bull Terrier mix in a shirt and tie on the cover. In Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, however, the same dog has come up in the world as evidenced by his sitting in a limousine with foxy purebred Poodles on either side of him. The Bully belonged to Springfield who often referred to him as his “hair-shedding soul mate.” The dog’s actual name was “Lethal Ron,” (sometimes known as Ronnie, Arnie or Arnfarn). Lethal Ron was found in the parking lot of the library in Glendale, California and got his name, Springfield said, “because of his staggeringly bad gas.” No wonder Springfield used Poodles to “class up” the album cover.