Songfacts®:

• In this song, Rick Springfield is scraping to get by and it seems like the world is going crazy, but everything is alright tonight because he'll be with his baby.
  
  "'Love Is Alright Tonight' is a real atypical pop/rock song," he said on the radio show The Hot Ones. "It's like a rock and roll 9 to 5. It's all the things about getting out and having a good time set to a rock and roll beat. This is one of the simpler and one of my favorite songs on that album."
• This was the third single from Rick Springfield's Working Class Dog album, following "Jessie's Girl" and "I've Done Everything For You." The album was a breakthrough for Springfield, an Australian who at the time also had a role on the soap opera General Hospital.
• This song and the rest of the album were recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, which build a legend thanks to its Neve console and distinctive drum sound. When Dave Grohl made a 2013 documentary about the studio (Sound City), "Love Is Alright Tonite" was used in it along with commentary from Springfield and bits of a few of his other songs. Springfield and his wife Barbara met at the studio.
• The album title comes from a line in this song:
  
  I'm working hard, I don't know why
  I'm like a working-class dog
  
  The Working Class Dog front cover features a bull terrier named Ronnie that was given to Rick by his ex-girlfriend, with a photo of Springfield on the back cover. The record company wanted Rick on the cover to take advantage of his popularity on General Hospital, so in the first pressings, he's on the front cover and the dog is on the back. Rick wanted Ronnie on the front, so in the end he won out and all future releases went out with the pooch on the cover and Rick on the back. Mike Doud, who designed it, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album Package.
• Surprisingly, Springfield didn't release a video for this song, even though MTV had recently gone on the air and played "Jessie's Girl" to death. He was very busy around this time, which is probably why. In addition to touring and promoting the album, he was also appearing on the soap opera General Hospital in a regular role as Dr. Noah Drake.
• "Love Is Alright Tonite" appears in the 2001 movie Wet Hot American Summer and in the 2009 Californication episode "Mr. Bad Example."