Jeff breaks down the HITS of Richard Marx with Richard himself

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens. This is theEighties Show here with Richard Marks, my
first ever co host on the eightyShow. Thank you, Richard. I'm
so flattered, Buddy love it.We're going to talk about your songs.
Let's go back to the debut innineteen eighty seven, Don't Mean Nothing.
It's on the radio, it's onMTV. What was that like, because
that's pretty much an autobiographical song.Yes, I mean somewhat. When I

(00:22):
think about that song and the lyricsthat we're just so, I wrote these
really cynical lyrics, and I wastwenty two, but I had already experienced
several years in show business and inthe music business in LA and had experienced
the level of jive talk and emptypromises, and I was I had a
little bit of a chip on myshoulder already, So that lyric was pretty

(00:44):
easy for me to write. Thefact that we ended up having through just
complete flukes. Randy Meisner, whojust we just lost recently, who was
incredible from the Eagles, Timothy Schmidt, who actually replaced Randy in the Eagles,
and they had never sung together.They did the background vocals on Me
Nothing, and Randy played my demofor Joe Walsh, who said I want

(01:06):
to play on that song. SoI mean, Joe Walsh asked to play
on my song there You Go,which I couldn't believe. So having those
three guys in nineteen eighty seven whenthere hadn't been an Eagles record in seven
years, is a huge part ofwhite Out on the radio, so I'm
forever grateful to them. It wasreally exciting. I remember the first time
I finally heard Don't Mean Nothing onthe radio. All my friends had heard
it, my family had heard it. And I was driving to some radio

(01:29):
interview somewhere and I was dosswitching,dosswitching, trying to find it, and
finally I caught, like the verylast chorus, and I pulled the car
over. I was so excited,but I was really psyched to hear the
back announced, to hear what theDJ would say. And I waited and
waited and waited in the fade outand Walsh and the back when vocals,
and then finally the voice comes onand goes and now a word from Craft

(01:52):
not quite what you were hoping at, what I was hoping for. Well,
then let's do it right. Hereis Richard Marks with his debut and
a huge hit from nineteen eighty seven. This is Don't Mean Nothing on the
Eighties Show. Thanks for checking outThe Eighties Show. I'm Jeff Stevens here
with my co host for the night, Richard Marks. And Richard we're talking
about kind of going through your listof the amazing songs that we've been able
to hear from you on the radio. So Don't Mean Nothing as a huge

(02:14):
hit, it's all over the radionow. People are going, who's the
dude with the cool hair? Well, cool was one word for it.
They still say that, by theway. And then you release your second
single, and of course there canbe a sophomore slump. Yeah, and
should Have Known Better was not aslump. No. It matched the success
of Don't Mean Nothing, and itwas another big MTV video and it was

(02:38):
sort of like the one two punch. Yeah. You know, to have
two pop rock singles back to backsort of set you on your path.
Especially at that time. That songhad been actually the story about Shouldn't I
Better? That's interesting is I wroteShouldn't I Better? I think when I
was nineteen or twenty. It hadbeen rejected by every record company It was
the lead song on my demo tape. When I was trying to get a

(02:59):
record deal. Every record company inthe world turned it down and said,
it's not you don't have any hits, you know, look right, you
know on an artist, you know, David Foster told me I shouldn't sing.
Really, I had a bunch ofpeople like sort of really like not
support me, you know what Imean. But I really believed in that
song. In fact, you know, I had that song years before I
got my record deal. Actually,so luckily, I had a couple of

(03:23):
songs that I felt as Summer Nightswas another one. I had those two
songs on my demo tape, andI felt really strong about those songs.
So I understood the feeling of notpressure, but just I gotta fill this
album with great songs. But itwas nice to have a couple of songs
that I felt were pretty special andshouldn't None better was one of them.
And hopefully you called up David Fosterand said, hey, oh, by

(03:43):
the way, it's me the guywho can't sing with my second hit on
the radio. I've told him manytimes. From nineteen eighty seven, another
top five hit from Richard Marks,this should have known better on the Eighties
Show. Thanks for checking out TheEighties Show. I'm Jeff Stevens my co
host Richard Marks. Thank you again. Richard, you like being on the
radio. You think it maybe ofa future DJ career or what do you
think? Boo? I mean,haven't There hasn't been enough of me on

(04:05):
the radio, never, never,never, never scratch what I just said
there, There can't be too muchof me on the radio. Absolutely not.
So nineteen eighty seven was loaded upwith don't mean nothing and should have
known better. We get now tothe springtime of eighty eight, and Endless
Summer Nights comes out pretty much inthe springtime heading into the summer, and

(04:25):
I mean it was perfect timing.I don't know if that's your record label
or that's you saying Endless Summer Nights. Let's get this thing out for summer.
Another monster hit from you. Yeah, even even bigger hit on the
pop charts. Yeah, we almostgot to number one, but and Endless
Summer Nights stayed at number two fora couple of weeks, behind Man in
the Mirror by Michael Jackson, whowas there. Yeah, there was no

(04:46):
jump in that one. There wasyou know, we finally ran out of
steam. That song end the SummerNights, to this day is one of
those songs that just I still hearit on the radio all around the world.
I can go to Sri Lanka andthey'll sing the Summer Nights back to
me. You know, that wasa song that sort of broadened my audience,
so all of a sudden, insteadof just rock dudes or teenage girls,

(05:12):
All of a sudden, Endles SummerNights was the song that started getting
couples to come to my show andthey were like, oh, that's a
story about You know what's funny isthat Endless Summer Nights. The entire lyric
takes place in the winter. Summercame and left without a warrning, but
it's called Endless Summer Nights, sopeople like, it's a summer song.
I don't need to read. Idon't need to read the lyrics. But

(05:33):
what a great line though, Summercame and left without a warning. That
that line jumps out to me morethan any of the entire song because we
can all relate to that, Andthat's what that's what I think is great
about your lyrics for all these decades. Is your song lyrics connect in such
a way that people remember them?Well, that's very nice of you to
say. I would love to saythat I've tried to do that, but

(05:56):
it's just the way I've always written, and all of my songs have an
ellen either partly or completely, thatis very personal. What I learned early
on is that the more personal Iwrote, the more universal it is,
because we're all we've all experienced thesame stuff. We've all been dumped,
we've all had our hearts broken,we've all longed for someone who didn't return

(06:17):
that affection We've you know, thestuff that I've traditionally written about is so
universal. What's personal is the sortof details you know sometimes of the some
of the lines are very personal tome, but then they resonate with other
people, and just like songs thatother people have written resonate with me that
I you know, people I've nevermet. Here's a number two hit,

(06:38):
Darn Michael Jackson. This is endlessSummer Nights on the Eighties Show, one
great Eighties song after another. Youare listening to the Eighties Show. I'm
Jeff Stevens, joined for the entireshow by Richard Marks, Thank you so
much for taking the time everybody todo this. We're going to talk about
your first number one. Let's goback to the summer of nineteen eighty eight
for Hold onto the Nights. Whatwas it like you had to feel like

(07:00):
your first three singles all got intothe top ten and nudging up to number
one. Did you feel like Holdonto the Knights was going to be the
one that finally broke through to numberone. I've never written a song I
thought was a hit. I know, I've never been good at that.
I just write songs that I likeand I hope other people like them too.
I've never chosen the singles. It'salways been the record company. There
have been times when I've been alittle bummed out that they didn't pick this

(07:21):
song over that song, But Idon't That's not my area of expertise,
so I leave that to them.And a lot of times they were right.
Sometimes they weren't right. But Iused to always feel like, look,
I've written and recorded eleven songs,twelve songs, whatever, whatever song
you pick, I'll be fine with. I stand behind all of them.
You know, Hold on the Knightswas really influenced the production on Hold Onto

(07:45):
the Knights was really influenced by PeterGabriel's So album, which I was obsessed
with at the time, and itwas very I wanted rather than just write
and record a typical power ballot thatwas like every other power ballot in nineteen
eighty eight, I wanted to recordit in a way that was very sparse
and ethereal. There's no drums untilthe very end of the song, and
my record company was up my keysterto bring the drums in really like first

(08:09):
chorus, and they were like,nothing happens until the end of it.
I was like, is it iswhat it is? And if it fails,
it fails, you know. Butthey kept getting such great feedback from
people who were buying the album,so they went with that as the as
the fourth and final single from thefirst album, and I gotta say it
was just so exciting when it wentto number one. And the night that
it went to number one, Iwas playing some outdoor amphitheater in I want

(08:33):
to say, Pennsylvania, and mygrandfather, who would have been probably eighty
three, was with me that night, and I have a picture of my
grandfather his name was Duane, andme holding up number one in this photo.
It was like it happened to him. He was so proud and he
was so excited, and I gotto share that moment with my grandfather,

(08:56):
who I was really close to.So that's my that's my most vivid memory
of that song going to number one. All right, here we go,
number one song from the summer ofnineteen eighty eight. Co hosting The Eighties
Show with Richard mars. This ishold On to the Nights on the Eighties
Show. You are listening to theEighties Show. I'm Jeff Stevens with my
co host Richard Marx, who's eyeballinga career in the radio business, though

(09:16):
I am now So eighty seven andeighty eight filled with top ten, top
five, number one songs. Howdo you follow that up in nineteen eighty
nine with a number one song?Wow? Yeah, Peter Fender comes out
the sophomore Jinx didn't happen. Iwas really really lucky and grateful that it
just seemed to get bigger. Ithink part of it was that I had

(09:39):
really defined myself as a touring artist, as a live artist at that point,
and so then at that point Iknew that I wanted to make the
second album just a bunch of songsthat would be fun to play live.
Satisfied was the last song I wrotefor the album. I basically, and
I don't mind saying this, Ibasically ripped off a song called She's a
Beauty by the Tubes. Your friendfew Bill, who's my lifelong best friend,

(10:03):
the godfather of my kids Wow cowrote She's a Beauty is the lead
singer of the Tubes. And ifyou go and if you just look at
section by section, I'm not rippingoff any of the melody or actually the
chord changes at all, right,but I am totally ripping off the structure
of She's a Beauty, even downto the sort of rhythm electric guitar parts.

(10:24):
I remember playing it for fee andSteve Lucathor, who also co wrote
that song. I remember because Iwas pals with him, and I said,
look, I think I ripped youoff, but if you want credit,
i'll you know, we'll work itout. And I've played them the
mix and Steve Lukethor said, youknow, I hear it, but like
you didn't see your song, Likewe couldn't sue you because there's nothing to
Sue, but so we'll just becomplimented by it, you know, and

(10:48):
that it was Yeah, and Iwent to number one, which essentially gave
you back to back number one songs, which it's we talked about hold onto
the Nights. Kind of unique thatthe fourth single hit number one. Usually
it's yeah for your second single.It's really the fourth single that goes to
low build and then you come rightback with the number one song from your
next album repeat offender. Yep,let's listen to that one from Richard Marks

(11:09):
here on the Eighties Show. Thanksfor checking out The Eighties Show every week.
I'm Jeff Stevens. We are herewith Richard Marks, and we're learning
the stories behind the songs. Thiswould be your third straight number one in
the summer of nineteen eighty nine.You follow up Satisfied this great rocker,
and now you come back with apower ballad right here waiting, and essentially
it's number one song, number onesong, number one song for Richard Marks.

(11:33):
You had to feel like things werejust it was a tidal wave at
that point. It was. Itwas really exciting. I don't remember much
of it because and I didn't evendrink back then. I caught up with
that later. It was just sucha whirlwind of shows, and I was
doing at least two hundred shows ayear, wow. And in between I
was writing songs from my next down, but also writing and producing the song

(11:56):
for Vixen, and I'm writing asong for Poco and a song for this
one. And if I had twodays off, I didn't want to hang
out. I wanted to be inthe studio making more music for somebody else.
So that first three or four yearsof success were was a complete blur.
And the other thing that's amazing iseven to this day, especially on
TikTok and, is all these kids, these little kids who have learned to

(12:18):
play right here waiting on the piano, because anybody can play right here waiting
in an it's in the key ofC. Any moron can learn right here
waiting on the piano. You're tellingme that I can learn anyone, even
you, Jeff. You know thefunny story about right you're waiting is in
the summer of eighty eight, whenI was touring, I had just written

(12:41):
that, and my girlfriend at thetime, who became my first wife,
Cynthia, was away doing a film. She was an actress, and we
couldn't see each other for several monthsbecause of my touring schedule and her she
was in Africa, and I justI missed her terribly. So I wrote
right Here Waiting in twenty minutes.It was the easiest song I've ever written,
but it was such a tender again, personal, intimate song that I

(13:05):
had no intention of recording it.And in the summer of eighty eight,
I got a call asking if Icould meet if I would meet with Barbara
streisand because she wanted me to writea song for her. She had heard
my first album and I was soexcited to meet her, and we had
this really great little hang in astudio. I thought, oh, I'm
not going to use that ballad Ijust wrote. I'll send it to her,
and she called me. A coupleof messenger messengered it over to her,

(13:26):
and then the next day she calledme and I still have the voicemail
that she left me, which was, thank you so much for sending me
the song. The melody's absolutely beautiful, but I'm not going to be right
here waiting for anybody. That washer quote in her turning that song down.
It gave it the opportunity for meto live with it enough and have

(13:46):
my friends be like, are youan idiot that you're not going to put
this song? Like everyone who heardit said, this is a smash,
So I reluctantly put it on thealbum and it became really kind of like
the biggest song in my life.And I thank Barbara streisand to this day
for ject serious Could we hear thevoicemail if I had it with? Here
is Richard Marks with his third straightnumber one song, This is right here

(14:07):
waiting on the Eighties Show. JeffStephens, So glad you were listening to
the Eighties Show with my special cohost Richard Marks. Thanks so much for
taking the time to Richard. Sothe eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty
nine, ninety, you're just allover the radio, You're cranking out albums,
you're touring. We flip into thenineties and it could have been like,
oh, there goes Richard Marx,but nope, you are back with

(14:28):
more music, still back on thecharts into the decade. Because some artists,
for whatever reason cannot make it fromthe seventies to the eighties or from
the eighties to the nineties. Andyou just went right in there with a
song called Hazard. Look. Itwas written as an exercise. I had
never written a story song before atthat point, and I was just sort
of experimenting for the third album,and I'd written a handful of songs I

(14:52):
thought were really strong candidates for thealbum. It was much more of a
rock record actually, you know.Tommy Lee played drums on a track and
Billy Joel Pay piano on a track. But I had written this sort of
country ish story song and said itin a little town in Nebraska, and
I really worked hard on it,and the harder I worked on it,
the dumber I thought it was.I just thought it was so dumb.

(15:15):
It's very difficult to try to tella story in two verses and a bridge.
I did my best. It was, really, just, like I
said, an exercise, a songwritingexercise for me. I made a little
demo of it, and everyone Iplayed it for flipped out over it,
and then they picked it as asingle, which I thought was I thought,
no one is going to care aboutthis stupid little song, and it
became one of the biggest hits ofmy life around the world. The song

(15:37):
went to number one in like fourteendifferent countries. And the fact that people
got so invested in the story andthe lyric, partly because of the success
of the video. The video wasreally well done, the longest shoot I'd
ever done, three days, becauseit was like a little movie. Robert
Conrad, the TV actor, whowas a family friend, agreed to come
and be the sheriff and the videoJennifer O'Neil from Summer of forty two and

(16:00):
who I always had a crush ongrowing up. She played the character who
was my character's mother. Blown awayby how successful it became. And the
only thing that's bizarre is how manypeople now the story. If you haven't
heard, if you don't know,the song off the top of your head
is a murder mystery set in thislittle town and my character is accused of
murdering this young girl. And Ihave had countless people ask me to my

(16:25):
face if this song is autobiographical,and I'm like, what is wrong with
you? Did you hear what youjust asked me? You think I killed
some chicken Nebraska and wrote a songabout it? What is wrong with you?
So you're here to tell us youdid not? I plead innocent.
A ball charge Okay? Another hitfrom Richard Marks from nineteen ninety one.

(16:48):
This is Hazard on the Eighties Show. I'm Jeff Stevens. You are listening
to the Eighties Show, So gladyou are my co host Richard Marks here,
and we're talking about some of yourearly nineties hits. The Way She
Loves Me comes out and it's gotthese killer vocals and this great guitar hook.
That is one of those that Ithink people would go to your show.
You have so many hits and theymight go, oh yeah, I

(17:08):
kind of forgot about that one.Yeah, thank you. It's really fun
to play alive, and it's true, I think it doesn't get It doesn't
get a lot of airplay anymore,even though it was a top twenty single
back in the day. But everytime I play it live, people are
up and dancing and they will go, oh yeah, I love that song.
I wrote that song after a gigin London. I've played the Hammersmith

(17:29):
in London and I was so wiredfrom the show and I went back to
my hotel room, took a shower, and in the shower I wrote the
chorus to where She Loves Me,and I envisioned it at the time like
sort of like a sixties throwback,you know, with great three part harmony.
And so I finished the song prettyquickly. And when I was recording
the album, I wanted a threepart harmony that would be really unique and

(17:49):
cool. Then I ended up gettingLionel Ritchie and Luther Van Dross and the
three of us did all the backgroundvocals on that song. It was epic
afternoon, I would imagine it was. So I just kept looking at both
of them, like back and forth. I was like, like, how
did I get in this room?That is amazing? I never knew that,

(18:11):
but you had, you were yougot. One of the first things
you did was sing backups for Lionel. Right, yeah, Well, Lionel
really gave me my first job whenI was eighteen nineteen. I've sang on
his first solo album and then hisfirst three solo albums actually, and he
recommended me as a singer to KennyRodgers, his buddy at the time,
who I then wrote songs for him. That's how my songwriting career started.

(18:33):
It all. It all leads backto Lionel. Anybody who's ever met him,
He's the most gracious, cool,amazing human being. And I just
adore him. All right, herewe go Richard Marks with Luther Van Dross
and Latta Richie. This is nonames, that's right, name dropper,
totally okay on this The Way SheLoves Me. On the eighty show,
You've got the Eighties Show, I'mJeff Stevens and we are going to progress
to today. We've talked about allof your amazing songs in the eighties and

(18:56):
nineties. You put an album outcalled Songwriter, and I think it's so
cool the concept of this album thatyou put out, you know, a
few months ago. What a greatidea because you've written songs for so many
people. Yeah, I didn't.I started to make a pretty diverse album,
and then I thought, well,why don't I just focus on four
different genres and just do five songseach. So I did five beautiful ballads,

(19:18):
I did five country songs. Idid five rock songs, and five
pop songs. And a lot ofthem are collaborations with a lot of newer
people. I think it's really importantto collaborate with new people and not get
stuck in year old habits, youknow. And one of my collaborators of
the last few years is my sonLucas who's an incredible writer, producer,

(19:40):
singer, and we just really workwell together. I work with all three
of my sons, but Lucas andI just have clicked as co writers.
So we wrote this song with afriend of ours name Michael Jay, who's
another young singer songwriter I think isamazing, and Lucas produced the track and
we had a top fifteen AC singlewith it, you know, and like

(20:02):
Lucas said, I can't believe I'mactually on the Billboard charts with my dad
and I really love this song.I think it's really fresh and it goes
over really well live, which isalways important. Absolutely well, here you
go, something new from Richard Marks, co written with his son Lucas.
This is same Heartbreak, different dayon the eighties show