More than two decades have passed since Richard Marx exploded onto the pop music scene with the release of his smash 1987 self-titled debut album. Surpassing the 3 million mark in record sales, it yielded the hit singles ‘Don’t Mean Nothing,”Endless Summer Nights’ and ‘Hold on to the Nights.’
Marx’ 1989 follow-up album, ‘Repeat Offender,’ more than doubled his previous record’s sales with 7 million copies sold worldwide. Featuring the singles ‘Satisfied’ and ‘Right Here Waiting,’ this sophomore effort solidified Marx’s standing in the music industry as well as in the eyes of the record buying public.
The overwhelming success of Marx’s early albums earned him the distinction of being the first male recording artist to place his initial seven single releases in the Top 5 on the Billboard charts.
The ’90’s saw the release of three more albums, two of which went platinum, including ‘Rush Street’ (featuring the singles ‘Keep Coming Back,”Hazard,”Take This Heart’ and ‘Chains Around My Heart’) and ‘Paid Vacation’ (containing the ballad ‘Now and Forever’). Nominated for three Grammy awards as well as an American Music Award, Billboard Magazine recognized Marx in 1992 as ‘Best Selling Contemporary Artist.’
While subsequent releases garnered respectable attention from music critics and his fans, all the notoriety that had been deservedly bestowed on Marx began to wane in favor of newer artists. Marx took his songwriting skills in a new direction.
‘I set out to write good songs,’ Marx said.
‘As many hits as I’ve written, I’ve never written one that I felt was a hit song while in the process of writing it. It’s great to have a hit, but it’s never been my motivation. It’s lightning in a bottle. For me to premeditate it or even think I can premeditate it is the ultimate in arrogance. I just write songs that I like. I’ve written a lot of bad songs – it’s just that you’ve never heard them ’cause I’m not going to finish them or record them. If you hear a song of mine, it’s because it’s good enough for you to hear.’
Along his professional musical journey Marx has sold more than 30 million records worldwide. His songwriting skills have earned him an astonishing 13 No. 1 songs, many of which were written for and recorded by a number of his fellow artists. Best recognized as a highly successful solo artist, Marx has gone on to earn an impeccable reputation as a producer and songwriter among his peers. He has worked with Barbara Streisand, Josh Groban, Luther Vandross, Kenny Rogers, Leann Rimes and Chris Botti, just to name a few.
‘I had a pretty nice run as a singer, but when that ended I was still pretty young – I was in my 30s,’ Marx said. ‘I still had a ton of music to make. The fact that I’ve had this act as a songwriter for and with other people, it all comes back to me being a songwriter. If it was all about me being a singer or celebrity that’s long gone.
‘Singing is not the focus now – it’s the fun. I do it because I love singing, and I love performing. I actually think I’m starting to get good at it. All those years of touring and performing, I prided myself on doing a good show. It was a treadmill. It was for the purpose of promoting a record, and it’s what an artist does. Now, when I get on a plane to head to a show and walk out on stage, it’s because I want to be there. It’s not about anything except that I love doing it.’
Citing his parents, Elvis Presley and Sam Cooke as his earliest musical influences, Marx’s desire to be a songwriter began when he was barely a teenager.
‘I figured out when I was 12 or 13 that I wanted to be a songwriter,’ Marx said. ‘Nothing affected or moved me in the way that songs did. It all started with my dad sitting down and playing the Paul Simon album ‘Still Crazy After All These Years.’ I remember not only being moved by the music but thinking, ‘This is what I want to do. I don’t want to be just a singer I want to be a songwriter.’ It went from there.
‘I just came back from China, and everywhere I went these people would sing every word and after all these years of having that experience over and over and every time that happens I still shake my head and say, ‘I can’t believe this.’ After all this time something comes to me every day. The window is always open. Everyday there’s a lyric or melody that creeps in. Luckily the songwriting well seems healthy.’
Over the past decade Marx has remained busy. He won a Grammy in 2004 for Song of the Year for ‘Dance with Father,’ which he co-wrote with the late Luther Vandross. He participated in a 2006 concert tour, joining Edgar Winter, Sheila E and Billy Squire as a member of ‘Ringo and His All-Star Band.’ In 2008 he was part of the PBS television series ‘Songwriters In The Round Presents: Legends & Lyrics.’
Marx continues to participate, through his music, in a variety of charitable causes helping to raise millions of dollars for the New York University Medical Center, Children of the Night Foundation, Toys For Tots, Make A Wish Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the Special Olympics. Marx hosts an annual event for the Ronald McDonald House in Chicago as well as an annual concert to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
In 2011, Marx released a three-disc set, ‘Stories To Tell,’ exclusively through Wal-Mart stores that included a best of disc, an acoustic disc of tracks, and a DVD of a live concert performance. He also released a five-song EP collection of Christmas tunes entitled ‘Christmas Spirit.’
Marx intends to record an additional seven songs for this collection and aims to have a full-scale release for Christmas 2012.
‘I have a lot of new music to be released this year that I can look forward to letting people hear,’ Marx said. ‘There’s going to be a series of releases, starting next month with this ‘Stories to Tell’ package, which is going to be available everywhere. Next will be a new studio rock album followed at the end of the year by a real proper Christmas album, because the one I recently did was just an EP. For the last seven years, my sons and I have recorded a Christmas song for my wife for Christmas. So we’re going to do a proper Christmas album at the end of the year.’
Despite all of his success, Marx has managed to keep things in perspective by maintaining his sanity in a generally insane business.
‘I’ve never embraced the celebrity part of the career,’ Marx said. ‘It’s the choices you make. How do you want to live your life? I’m constantly aware of how lucky I am and how grateful I am and need to be. I don’t know if I’d have had the life that I do if people around me hadn’t kept me grounded. I never got into drugs. I never got into partying. I never got into the excess of anything.’
