For a period of time in the late 1980s, it was nearly impossible to turn on pop radio without hearing a song by Richard Marx.
One of the most commercially successful singer-songwriters of his generation, Marx's music helped define the sound of late-'80s pop and rock ballads. Songs like “Right Here Waiting” and, later, “Now and Forever” became so ubiquitous that they could almost be taken for granted. Classics hiding in plain sight, but often coming out after dark: “Hold On to the Nights,” “Endless Summer Nights.”
Marx came of age during peak MTV, a blue-eyed soul singer with a sharp, poignant songwriting sensibility and a seemingly effortless gift for melody.
But his songwriting ambitions began long before he became a pop star. Growing up in Chicago, the son of jazz pianist and composer Dick Marx, he was already singing professionally on his father's commercial jingle sessions as a young child.
And at 12, when his father played him Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years, something clicked.
“Up until the day my dad played me that Paul Simon album, my fantasy was to be a rock star, [and] to be a singer,” he remembers.
“The epiphany was, oh, I have to be a songwriter. I gotta write my own songs. I wanna do that. I don't even care about singing anymore. I just wanna write songs. And that was the day that my songwriting life began.”
Nearly 40 years after his breakthrough, Marx remains a fixture in popular music. Even before his debut album arrived in 1987, he'd been encouraged by Lionel Richie to move to Los Angeles and was writing songs for artists including Kenny Rogers.
Over the years, his songs have been recorded by *NSYNC, Josh Groban and Luther Vandross, with whom he co-wrote the Grammy-winning “Dance With My Father.”
His latest album, After Hours, brings him back to the music he grew up hearing. It's a collection of standards, including “Fly Me to the Moon” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” alongside Marx’s original songs written in the style of the Great American Songbook.
He recorded the album live with the musicians, singing alongside the orchestra rather than overdubbing his vocals later. And he says writing new songs that could stand alongside the standards was one of the cherished challenges of his career.
“I think it was maybe the most satisfying songwriting I've done in maybe ever,” he says.
That may be because After Hours was a long time coming. For all his years as a singer, he didn't feel ready to approach this repertoire until now.
“I don't feel like I was ready to sing those songs until I'm in my 60s,” he explains.
After Hours is out now and available at all hours.
