Richard Marx is one of the most accomplished singer-songwriters in the history of popular music. His self-titled 1987 album went triple platinum and made him the first male solo artist to have four singles from their debut crack the top three on the Billboard Hot 100. His follow-up, 1989’s Repeat Offender, was an even bigger smash, going quadruple platinum and landing two singles at number one. He has written fourteen number one songs in total, shared a Song of the Year Grammy with Luther Vandross, and collaborated with a variety of artists including NSYNC, Josh Groban, Natalie Cole, and Keith Urban. Lately, he’s also become a Twitter celebrity thanks to his outspokenness on social issues and his ability to out-troll his trolls.
In Stories to Tell, Marx uses this same engaging, straight-talking style to look back on his life and career. He writes of working with Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie and Vixen, and of forming friendships with Olivia Newton-John, Fee Waybill and Barbra Streisand. Yet amid these entertaining celebrity encounters, Marx offers a more sobering assessment of the music business as he’s experienced it over four decades—the challenges of navigating greedy executives and grueling tour schedules, and the rewards of connecting with thousands of fans at sold-out shows that make all the drama worthwhile. He also provides an illuminating look at his songwriting process and talks honestly about how his personal life has inspired his work, including finding love with wife Daisy Fuentes and the mystery illness that recently struck him—and that doctors haven’t been able to solve.
This memoir was released in July of 2021 by Simon and Schuster Publishing. My fellow Volumanaics Book Club members and I will be discussing it for our monthly book club on Zoom in December of 2022.
When I think of Marx and his music, I immediately am brought back into the 1980's. His debut album came out in the summer of 1987 (the last months of my college years). But some of his early songwriting for and with others came before that, so my memories are sort of justified. I had forgotten about how many songs he's been involved with, so reading this memoir definitely refreshed all that as well. After reading the book, I'm going to go check out some of his more recent releases as well.
From the stories he shared, I came to appreciate his work ethic and dedication. Having the drive and talent to pull off performances while deathly ill is amazing. I also came to appreciate his openness and honesty. He definitely calls them like he sees them (something I knew from his Twitter account). Again, I respect that.
He talked about two of my favorite duets from the early 80's in the book and his experiences with them (not that he was involved with the songwriting on them, mind you). I smiled about his dueting with Olivia on "Suddenly", and I was overjoyed to hear how he met his first wife Cynthia Rhodes over initial work on the song "I'm Never Gonna Give You Up" (which she recorded with Frank Stallone for the Staying Alive soundtrack) - I have always loved that song. I would have liked to hear more about his marriage to Cynthia (twenty-five years together and three sons is an accomplishment) but respect that he wanted to keep the personal stuff actually personal.
This was a quick, easy and enjoyable read. Focus mostly on the music with very little drama. Nice change of pace for an autobiography/biography.
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