Music

So MUSH
so SOON
He is considered to be the king of Ballads, one of the most brilliant songwriters of the decade and an artiste so versatile that his songs often feature in both pop and rock charts, worldwide. But unlike other contemporary artistes, Richard Marx is rarely seen on the idot box or in magazines. In fact, he simply lets his music do al the talking.
For a kid who once painted pictures in the sky of becoming a songwriter someday, Richard Marx has come a long way. His 10-year illustrious career includes 10 top ten singles, 4 number one hits, Grammy nominations for 'Best Rock Vocal Performance' and 'Best Pop Vocal Performance' and has the honour of being the only male singer to chalk up four straight platinum albums. Over the years his songwriting talent, his crisp, clear tenor voice, excelent vocal range and dashing looks has made him a craze among male and female fans, besides earnign him the respect of artistes from the music industry.
April '97 saw the release of Marx's fifth album, Flesh And Bone. A heavy R&B influence in it, the release finds Marx going back to his roots and exploring the kind of music he once lived on. Also including four phenomenal ballads, the much awaited Flesh And Bone which comes three years after his last release Paid Vacation, has already been lapped up by fans. And the pick of the ballads from the album, Until I Find You Again, is on its way to dominate radio and television airplay all over the world, that is if it hasn't done so yet.
Coming to Marx's story, there is nothing scandalous or exciting about it. In fact, the beautiful music he creates is itself like an open book on his life. In other words it's clean, pure and unsustained.
Born in 1963 on hte north side of Chicago, little Richard Marx had music flowing in his right from the cradle, thanks to his family's musical background. His mother was a singer and his father was the legendary founder of a jingle company in the early Sixties. As a kid he spent he most of his time listening to WGCI, chicago's big urban station, on his little transistor, with only one earplug in his ear. And surprising as it may seem, the pop balladeer's music idols included R&B greats ike Sam Cooke, Danny Hathaway, Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, the Commodores, the O'Jays, and even Elvis to a large extent. Though he picked up a lot of music from his dad, he learnt most of his singing from his mother. At the age of seventeen, someone passed on a tape of his to the reigning king of Ballads, Lionel Richie. Marx was shocked for days when Richie called up and encouraged him to carry on with his music.
After graduation, he move to Los Angeles and visited Richie, who was at the time having trouble with a background vocal on his new album's track. Marx helped out and and ended up singing on the album. Later in 1984, he was recruited as a back-up vocalist for Kenny Rogers and when he overheard that Rogers was in need of a new song, he gave him a demo of Crazy which Rogers recorded eventually and till today remains one of his most popular `80's cuts.
Following Crazy, Kenny Rogers recorded another of Marx's compositions called What About Me. Featuring James Ingram and Kim Carnes, the track zoomed to the top spot on the country charts and soon Marx found himself working with the famous producer David Foster, and writing songs for Chicago and Freddie Jackson.
Even though Marx gained awesome popularity for his songwriting, for a while his demo tape continued to be rejected by every label in town. Finally, Capitols new EMI-Manhattan signed him up and subsequently followed his triple platinum debut album debut Richard Marx (1987). Two songs from the album, namely Endless Summer Nights and Should've Known Better, became Top 5 hits. And soon, alongwith Don't Mean Nothing and the number one Hokd On TO The Nights, Marx became the first ever male artiste to reach the Top 3 with four singles from a debut release.
While music tabloids and fans classified Marx as a rocker, he surprised everyone with his next release, Repeat Offender (1989) which became highly popular for its ballad content. Once again achieving triple platinum status, the record release featured two number ones, Satisfied and Right Here Waiting. With these two chart toppers, Marx completed a string of three number one singles and later, when another of the album's ballads Angelia entered the charts at number 4, he became the first solo artiste to reach the top 5 with his seven singles. As a songwriter he scored another top 10 hit with Surrender To Me, a beautiful duet sung by Heart's Ann Wilson and Cheap Trick's Robin Zander for the film Tequila Sunrise. Fans can hear Marx perform the track on his current release Fleash And Bone.
In 1991, Marx once again reached platinum and also the Top 40 album status with his highly acclaimed Rush Street. The album, though, featured only one major top ten hit, Hazard. Finally taking a break of three years which he devoted to spending with his family, he returned in 1994 with another platinum Top 40 album, Paid Vacation. The album's top cut, a ballad called Now And Forever featuring Marx on an acoustic guitar, sped to number 1 and remained there for a period of 11 weeks.
Following the success of his ballads, Marx was often asked what style he would categorize his music as, mainly because he kicked off his career as a rock artist. "I just have to make the kind of record I feel I'm supposed to make. I can't worry abotu where it fits in", quipped Mark.
About the time Marx was embarking on his Paid Vacation world tour, which included Japan and South-East Asia where he is a rage, he and his wife Cynthia with their three sons moved to Chicago, it was the fact that he could finally pick up his kids form school everyday, that too on time. Returning for a short while to LA, he recorded Power Inside Of Me for the soundtrack of The Mirror Has Two Faces and also most of the Flesh And Bone material.
Today, Richard Marx, one of the richest contemporary artistes artistes, is considered a future Hall of Famer and is loved all over the world. Rather, the Americans are proud of him, Europeans aqdore him, the English find him lovable and the Asians are crazy about him. but as for Marx, wealth, fame and popularity hold no attraction. Devoting time to his family and writing songs for his fans remain at the top of his priority list.