By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 4, 2004
If anyone is in on the joke, it’s Richard Marx. Grammy Award winner, hot producer-songwriter and all-around good guy, the Chicago native knows why some people don’t like him.
“Nobody gets the joke more than me,” says Marx, who resides on the North Shore with his wife, dancer-actress-singer Cynthia Rhodes, and their three boys. “When I first started out, I had credibility because my songs were played on rock radio and Joe Walsh was playing guitar on it. Then within a year, I became the anti-Christ.
“When I was 23, I used to take it all so seriously and was hurt by the potshots. But if I were looking at me from someone else’s eyes, I’m sure I couldn’t stand me, either. Especially in the early years when I was everywhere. I had some success, I have this perfect wife and family and I was doing OK.”
Then there was his hair, which evoked love from his teenage female fans and hatred from the likes of MTV VJ Adam Curry, who took the singer to task for his video friendly looks. Never mind that Curry’s fluffy do outdid Marx’s.
These days, Marx, 40, has been behind the scenes working quietly as a producer and songwriter for music’s A-listers. The man who sold more than 30 million albums since his 1987 debut has worked with everyone from Barbra Streisand to Madonna to Luther Vandross.
His collaboration with the latter won him a Grammy last month for “Dance With My Father.” Following on the heels of that win, EMI/Manhattan Records announced it had signed Marx to its label. His latest album is scheduled to be in stores in August.
“This is all surreal,” says Marx, during a phone call from Nashville, Tenn. “We were already three or four months into making [my record] — which was pretty much mixed — when we got the Grammy nomination. [EMI executive] Bruce Lundvall had originally signed me to Capitol Records back in 1912 or whenever it was solely on the basis of him liking my songs. These were the same songs that others had rejected, and he said he wanted to make a record with me.
“This time around with EMI, it was a rerun of that, basically. The only difference is that back then I was pursuing a record deal, and this time I had given up on making my own records. When he told me he’d love to do a record with me, I assumed he wanted me to produce someone he had in mind.”
Working at his home studio, Marx is able to stay close to his wife and three sons, ages 10 to 13. Of Brandon, his oldest, he says, “He’s everybody I wanted to be when I was 13. He looks more like Cynthia, thank God. He’s just really talented and already a guitar player, as much as I haven’t pushed him. He doesn’t play my songs. He plays Linkin Park.”
The son of former singer Ruth and jazz musician Dick Marx, who founded a successful jingle company in the 1960s, Marx began his career at 5 singing commercial jingles his father wrote.
His clear voice and romantic style are such a trademark that when Justin Timberlake played a demo of “This I Promise You” — a song that would become one of ‘N Sync’s biggest hits — Timberlake’s father was confused as to who was singing the song.
“I remember seeing Justin before their record came out and he said, ‘I always send my dad a tape of the stuff we’re doing,’ ” Marx recalls. “And his dad called him up and said, ‘I love this song, but why is Richard Marx singing it?’ I wasn’t, it was Justin, but we both have that same sandpaper voice. I was mortified because if it sounds too much like me, then I’ve failed the band. But it worked out OK for them, and me. I felt like I was on a runaway train with that song and was enjoying the ride.”
Marx, who returned to the Chicago area in 1994 after living in Los Angeles for 12 years, realizes that had he stayed in L.A. or relocated to New York or even Nashville, where his wife’s family lives, he probably would’ve had more visibility than he did living in Chicago.
But he and Rhodes decided that they had both had their turn in the spotlight (she was featured in “Dirty Dancing” and “Flashdance” and took over as the lead singer in Animotion) and wanted to rear their family in a laid-back atmosphere — similar to how Marx had grown up in Highland Park.
“I sit back now and watch the younger musicians coming up and the one thing I do see missing is the guy or girl that gets the joke,” Marx says. “They’re enormously talented, but when I read interviews with whomever and they’re talking so seriously about the music, I see them walking into the same bear traps I did.
“A handful of people who’ve been doing it long enough get the joke. I like the idea of being scared and waking up and asking myself every day, ‘How can I kick ass today?’ I’d rather go down in flames than in Vegas singing ‘Right Here Waiting.’ I don’t want to be known just for the past.”
A repeat contender: High Marx on the chartsAdmit it: You not only can hum a few Richard Marx tunes, but you like them, too. Here are some of our favorite selections from his early years:
Marx’s self-titled 1987 album produced four hit singles, including “Don’t Mean Nothing,” “Should’ve Known Better,” “Endless Summer Nights” and his first No. 1 single ,”Hold on to the Nights.”
His sophomore effort — 1989’s “Repeat Offender” – yielded two No. 1 singles, “Satisfied” and “Right Here Waiting.” “Angelia” made it to No. 4, making Marx the first solo musician to reach the Top 5 on the singles chart with his first seven songs.
1991’s “Rush Street” produced one of Marx’s most memorable songs, “Hazard.” The country-tinged song told the haunting tale of the death of a young woman.
