the supremes sang i wish i had jessie's girl.
the supremes sang i wish i had jessie's girl.
who sang i wish i had jessie's girl?
the supremes
jessie's girl









































"jessie's girl" is a song written and performed by australian singer rick springfield. it was released on the album "working class dog". the song is about unrequited love and centers on a young man in love with his best friend's girlfriend.
jessie's girl
earlier in the film, woody is stolen from a yard sale by al mcwhiggin, a toy collector, in order to complete his collection of vintage "woody's roundup" toys. a japanese toy museum is willing to purchase woody and the rest of the retired "woody's roundup" cast for a lucrative sum, each of whom have become collector's items since the show's cancellation. most of the toys long to travel to the museum in order to avoid spending the remainder of their lives in storage, but woody is hesitant and the museum will only accept the toys as a complete set. jessie is particularly adamant that it would be best to relocate to the museum. while woody explains that he is eager to return home to his rightful owner andy, preferring to be loved while risking damage and abandonment as opposed to being immortalized in a museum, jessie finally reveals that she herself once had an owner much like andy, by whom she was treasured before ultimately being discarded. before the song begins, woody tells jessie about his relationship with andy, which prompts her to share her own embittered experience with emily, the only person she had ever truly cared about. seated on a window sill, jessie perfectly interprets woody's feelings for andy: "when andy plays with you it's like, even though you're not moving, you feel like you're alive, 'cos that's how he sees you." describing emily as her "whole world", jessie proceeds to explain to woody both the joys and tragedies associated with being loved by a child, having once been emily's favorite toy before her interests change as she grows older, turning towards music and makeup instead, and increasingly neglecting jessie in the process, including forgetting her underneath her bed. emily's cowgirl-themed possessions are gradually replaced with makeup and music albums. before the scene ends, it offers jessie (and audiences) a moment of false hope by showing the doll being rediscovered, retrieved from underneath emily's bed and held as though she is about to be played with once again, only to be placed inside a cardboard box and left on the side of a road. jessie believes that all toys eventually "outlive their usefulness"; to her, the idea of relocating to japan "means that she will provide pleasure again and have some purpose in life." sky tv described the scene as "jessie's wistful trip down memory lane". the song also develops jessie and woody's relationship; jessie finds the courage to tell woody about her story, explaining her apprehension towards the idea of having an owner, while woody becomes a compassionate listener by learning how she became a collectible in the first place. jessie's sadness is used "as the anchor to keep woody in place", making him torn between which decision to make upon listening to jessie's story. later in the film, jessie must make a choice of her own to either forsake immortality in favor of being loved by a child once again. bbc online summarized the song's use in the film as "girl meets toy, girl loves toy, girl grows up, toy is left out for recycling."
when she loved me