Jonathan Coulton Gets Awesome in 'Je Suis Rick Springfield' -- Video Premiere

Jonathan Coulton rules. In 2005, so the story goes, Coulton abandoned his career path in software to become an Internet musical sensation. That year, he embarked upon an ambitious musical quest he called 'Thing a Week,' in which he wrote a song about a different thing every week for a year.

For 2011, Coulton has released 'Artificial Heart,' his first album of original material since his 'Thing a Week' project. The LP features the likes of musicians Suzanne Vega, John Roderick of the Long Winters, and Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara. Today, Spinner is proud to bring you the video for 'Je Suis Rick Springfield,' a song written in French about a man who professes to be Rick Springfield.

"The idea for this song came from some long rambling conversation I had with JF (John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants) about songwriting, and Rick Springfield, and pop songs in French," Coulton tells Spinner. "Somewhere at the end of that chat he said, 'You should write a song in French about a guy who's trying to convince someone that he is Rick Springfield.' It seemed like a good challenge that would produce some interesting results. I put on my '80s hat and it sort of wrote itself from there."

For our non-francophone audience, we at Spinner have done a quick translation of the first verse and chorus below.

Remember there was a record with a dog
A dog that wears a tie, like a man
I mean, the dog is like a man
Not the tie!

I am Rick Springfield!
I'm here in the bar
I'm a cool dude who plays the guitar
In the United States I'm a superstar

Take a look at the video, and keep an eye out for some awesome piano hand moves from the barefooted rocker.