Richard Marx

In the late 1980s, during the height of his visibility as a recording artist, Richard Marx occupied the overlapping space between album rock and adult contemporary radio. He delivered polished uptempo tracks such as “Don’t Mean Nothing” and “Should’ve Known Better” at the same time his ballads “Hold on to the Nights” and “Right Here Waiting” claimed the top of the charts. That commercial run extended into the early 1990s, when “Now and Forever” became his final Billboard Top Ten single in 1994. Thereafter the singer/songwriter sustained a solo recording career while also developing an array of outside projects. Foremost among them was his work as a professional songwriter, an occupation he had already practiced before issuing his self-titled debut album in 1987. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s he contributed material to pop legend Barbra Streisand, the emerging country group SheDaisy, teen sensations *NSYNC (for whom he wrote and produced the 2000 hit “This I Promise You”), and soul titan Luther Vandross, whose single “Dance with My Father” earned Marx the 2004 Grammy for Song of the Year. His credits continued to accumulate in subsequent decades through collaborations with Lifehouse, Hinder, Jennifer Nettles, and Ringo Starr, even as he kept releasing his own records. He recounted these experiences in the 2021 memoir Stories to Tell and issued his thirteenth studio album, Songwriter, in 2022.

A native of Chicago, he began singing at age five and appeared in advertising jingles during the late 1960s; his father, Dick Marx, was a jazz musician who operated a jingle company. After gaining experience promoting products such as Arm & Hammer and Nestlé Crunch, Marx started composing original songs in his teens. Those compositions eventually reached Lionel Richie, who hired him as a backing vocalist. Whitney Houston and Julio Iglesias likewise employed his voice, after which he concentrated on songwriting and supplied material to Kenny Rogers and the St. Elmo’s Fire soundtrack before securing a solo deal with EMI Records.

Marx’s self-titled debut, featuring production by David Cole—who later formed C+C Music Factory—was released in 1987 and quickly elevated him to the summit of the Billboard charts. Although “Don’t Mean Nothing” and “Should’ve Known Better” showcased guitar-driven, radio-friendly arrangements, his greatest impact came through ballads such as “Endless Summer Nights” and “Hold on to the Nights.” When Repeat Offender appeared in 1989, Marx already commanded consistent chart presence; the album nevertheless confirmed his stardom, as the Grammy-nominated ballad “Right Here Waiting” became his third straight number-one single in the United States. Rush Street, his third consecutive platinum album, arrived in 1991 and included appearances by Billy Joel and Luther Vandross. In 1994 he again achieved platinum status with his fourth studio release, Paid Vacation. Two years later he issued the studio album Flesh and Bone alongside a Greatest Hits compilation, and in 1998 he joined Donna Lewis for a duet featured on the Anastasia soundtrack.

Days of Avalon, released in 2000, performed respectably on adult-contemporary formats, yet Marx increasingly found success writing and producing for other acts. He supplied the Top Ten hit “This I Promise You” to *NSYNC and co-wrote “Dance with My Father,” which received a Grammy, for Luther Vandross; additional projects included songs for 98°, SHeDAISY, and Josh Groban. He resumed his solo output several years later with My Own Best Enemy in 2004, initiating a period of steady, lower-profile releases. Duo, a collaboration with Vertical Horizon’s Matt Scannell, appeared in 2008. That same year he simultaneously issued two solo studio albums, Emotional Remains and Sundown, though only in digital form: the former contained entirely new songs, while the latter comprised half cover versions. The acoustic set Stories to Tell followed in 2010, succeeded by the holiday album Christmas Spirit in 2012. Beautiful Goodbye, issued in 2014, marked Marx’s first domestically released studio collection of original material in a decade. That year he also reentered the public eye with a guest spot on American Idol. Limitless, his twelfth full-length album, arrived in 2020 and was co-produced by his son Lucas, who co-wrote two tracks including the single “Another One Down.”

Marx published his memoir, Stories to Tell, in July 2021; the book was packaged with a double-disc anthology of hits and rare recordings. The following year brought Songwriter, his thirteenth studio album. Blending pop, rock, country, and ballad styles, the record paired him with an extensive roster of co-writers that included Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Burt Bacharach, and Chris Daughtry, among others.