Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
Everyone knows Richard Marx for his solo smashes like “Don’t Mean Nothing” and “Right Here Waiting,” but many folks don’t realize just how many hits he created for others.
Come see for yourself at Capital Turnaround presented by Union Stage this Friday.
“It’s going to be a party in your honor, I’m just going to be your humble host,” Marx told WTOP. “We’ll do a bunch of the hits, but we’ll do whatever you want. When people yell out songs, especially the deep cuts, it’s a fun challenge to see if I can remember the lyrics!”
Born in 1963 in Chicago, Marx learned music from his parents. His mother was a former big-band singer, while his father was a jazz pianist turned successful jingle writer.
“My father just had this incredible knack for creating 30-second hits; he just knew how to write a hook,” Marx said. “My mother, who was a big band singer, became one of the go-to vocalists on his commercials, then when I was old enough to sing on commercials for candy bars and breakfast cereals and stuff like that, they had me come in and sing.”
Marx got his big break when Lionel Richie heard his demo tape.
“I made a demo tape and within a year some had found their way to Lionel Richie, who was just starting his solo career,” Marx said. “He really got behind me and encouraged me to move out to L.A. when I was 18. Then he had me singing background vocals … Lionel was like this guardian angel who took my hand and helped me get into the business.”
Indeed, that’s Marx singing the “all night” harmonies on “All Night Long.” It was also Richie who introduced Marx to Kenny Rogers, for whom Marx wrote the hit songs “What About Me?” and “Crazy.” He also recorded a song on the “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985) soundtrack.
In 1987, Marx finally took center stage himself with his self-titled debut album. It featured multiple hits, including “Hold On to the Nights,” “Endless Summer Nights” and “Don’t Mean Nothing,” which earned a Grammy nomination with a special assist from three Eagles: Joe Walsh (guitar solo), Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmit (background vocals).
“I just hoped that I could squeeze a hit out of it and sell enough records that the label would let me make another,” Marx said. “I thought it would be a gradual incline, but the first single ‘Don’t Mean Nothing’ was so accepted at rock radio and crossed over to pop radio.”
In 1989, his sophomore album “Repeat Offender” was iconic, including the song “Satisfied” and his career hit “Right Here Waiting,” which earned him another Grammy nomination. He wrote it for his then-girlfriend and eventual first wife Cynthia Rhodes (“Flashdance,” “Staying Alive,” “Dirty Dancing”), who was in Africa making a film at the time.
“I wrote that song in my friend’s garage,” Marx said. “He took a break to go make a phone call. I was sitting in his garage with a little electric piano, I sat down and wrote ‘Right Here Waiting’ in 15 minutes. It was the easiest song I ever wrote. … I tried to give it to Barbra Streisand … She wanted to rewrite the lyrics because: ‘I’m not waiting for anybody!'”
Thirteen studio albums later, Marx has a plethora of hits to choose from, not to mention the songs that he wrote for other artists, including “This I Promise You” (2000) for NSYNC.
“I worked with them in the studio and loved every second of it,” Marx said. “They were such great guys, total pros, no shock at all that Justin Timberlake blew up because his work ethic even then when he was a kid was unreal. I knew. I could tell.”
In 2001, he also wrote “To Where You Are” for a young Josh Groban.
“The Josh thing was such a surprise because he was just a kid with this gigantic opera voice coming out of this skinny little body,” Marx said. “It was really fun for me to try to get pseudo-classical with that musical. I wrote chord changes that I never wrote before.”
In 2003, he and his good friend Luther Vandross co-wrote “Dance with My Father,” which won the Grammy for Song of the Year and remains one of the all-time tearjerkers.
“He was one of my closest friends,” Marx said. “His father passed when he was like 12. My father died very suddenly when I was 33 in 1997. Luther was one of the few people that knew how to carry me through that grief. … I wrote the music pretty quickly, he sent me back this amazing lyric. … Ten days after we mixed it, he had a stroke [and later died].”
His talent knows no genre bounds, as Marx wrote country tunes for Keith Urban, including the No. 1 hit “Better Life,” the No. 5 hit “Everybody” and the No. 1 hit “Long Hot Summer.”
“We’re three for three,” Marx said.
Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
