By the time Richard Marx was 5, he had already started his musical career, singing jingles for commercials for brands like Nestlé Crunch and Arm & Hammer. At 14, Marx wrote his first song, three years before his cassette of songs ended up in Lionel Richie‘s hands, and he made his way to Los Angeles. Richie later recommended Marx to Kenny Rogers, who hired him as a background singer, which helped launch his songwriting career.
“He [Rogers] was there in the studio and I went up to him and said, ‘I’m a songwriter and I’d love to play you a song I wrote for you,” recalled Marx of his first meeting with Rogers. “And he should have thrown me out of the studio. He should have had security throw me on the street. But he was cool and said, ‘Let me hear it.’”
Marx continued, “And we sat at the piano and he cut my song. And then he cut two more of my songs, and that launched my songwriting career.”
By the late ’80s, Marx’s hitmaking songs spilled into his solo career with “Should’ve Known Better” and “Hold On to the Nights,” from his 1987 self-titled debut, and his “Right Here Waiting” from Repeat Offender in 1989.
Videos by American Songwriter
Marx released 13 albums, including Songwriter in 2022, and has written songs for and collaborated with Vince Gill, Barbra Streisand, Luther Vandross, Kenny Loggins, Keith Urban, NSYNC, and more artists throughout his 40-plus-year career.
“Along the way, when you’ve been doing it for decades, you do fall into, not routines, but there’s a way that I write songs, generally,” said Marx of songwriting in 2014. “Once in a while, you break out of that, and that’s when I think the magic happens, when you kind of break your own rules or you just don’t pay attention to your own rules, and that’s kind of hard to do when you’ve been doing it as long as I have.”
Here’s a look at those three Kenny Rogers songs that kicked everything off for Marx.
“Crazy”
Written by Richard Marx and Kenny Rogers
Released as the second single off Kenny Rogers’ 16th album, What About Me? “Crazy” was his 11th No. 1 hit as a solo artist, after parting ways with the band First Edition in 1976. “Crazy” was also Marx’s first No. 1 as a songwriter. Along with co-writing the song with Rogers, Marx also served as a session musician and backing vocalist on the track, produced by Rogers and David Foster.
Girl, there are no words to say
What I feel in my heart
You, you’re on my mind night and day
And it hurts me when we’re apart
When you’re not here by my side
There is nothing in this world for me
I guess I’m crazy, crazy for you, can’t you see?
And although you may think it’s crazy
Here is where I want to be
I will always need your love
“What About Me?”
Written by Richard Marx, Kenny Rogers, and David Foster
A three-way love song, the title track off of What About Me? was recorded by Rogers, Kim Carnes, and James Ingram after several pairs of artists backed out of the project for various reasons, including Lionel Richie and Barbra Streisand and Olivia Newton-John, and Jeffrey Osborne. Once released, the song was a hit, reaching No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Time after time, I feel I’m losing my mind
Or maybe this is what lovers must go through
It never entered my mind
We could be wasting our time
What am I gonna do?
What about me?
Oh, what about me?
No reason to pretend
True love affairs don’t have to come to an end
The moment we don’t have all the answers
“Somebody Took My Love”
Written by Richard Marx and David Pomeranz
The third track Marx wrote for Rogers was the more pop-leaning “Somebody Took My Love,” about a love gone missing.
I never thought that it would end this way
Somehow it’d always go home
And yet this morning, when I reached for her
She was gone
I never asked for any promises
I knew she’d always be there
I swear somebody must be loving at me somewhere
Love, love
Somebody took my love, love
How can this be?
She said: she’d always be there for me
Love, love
Somebody took my love, love
We set us free
You don’t know what she means to me
Photo: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.