Richard Marx

Marx was born in Chicago, Illinois, the only child of Ruth (née Guildoo), a former singer, and Dick Marx, a jazz musician and founder of a jingle company in the early 1960s.

His father was of German-Jewish descent.

Marx attended North Shore Country Day School.

He has three half-siblings from his father's previous marriage.

Marx began his career in music at age five, singing commercial jingles written by his father's company; his list of advertising hits includes Arm & Hammer, Ken-L Ration and Nestlé Crunch.

Marx was 17 and living in Highland Park, Illinois, when a tape of his songs ended up in the hands of Lionel Richie.

Richie thought Marx had talent and told the teen, "I can't promise you anything, but you should come to L.A."

Marx said one of the first musicians he met in Los Angeles was Fee Waybill of The Tubes with whom he has collaborated at least 30 times.

They met in a recording studio.

Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American adult contemporary and pop rock singer-songwriter.

He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

Marx's first number one success as a songwriter came in 1984 with "What About Me?", which was recorded by Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, and James Ingram, and topped the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary charts.

His second chart-topper was 1985's "Crazy", a song he co-wrote with Rogers which reached number one in the Hot Country Songs chart.

Marx's self-titled debut album went triple-platinum in 1987, and his first single, "Don't Mean Nothing", reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Between 1987 and 1994, he had 14 top 20 hits, including three number one singles.

Marx is the only male artist in history to have his first seven singles reach the top 5 of the Billboard charts.

He has scored a total of 14 number one singles, both as a performer and as a songwriter/producer.

As a singer, his No. 1 hits include “Hazard”, "Right Here Waiting", "Hold On to the Nights", "Endless Summer Nights", and "Satisfied".

According to Billboard, Marx "holds the distinction of having written songs that have hit No. 1 on various Billboard charts in each of the last four decades."

Marx has written or collaborated on songs with other artists, including "This I Promise You" by NSYNC and "Dance with My Father" by Luther Vandross.

Marx has been nominated for five Grammy Awards.

Marx's self-titled debut album, released in June 1987, yielded four hit singles and went triple platinum.

The debut single, "Don't Mean Nothing", is a song about the potential pitfalls of the music business.

"Don't Mean Nothing" reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Billboard's Album Rock chart.

Marx became the first new artist played on 117 radio stations nationwide during his initial week on the charts.

The next two singles, "Should've Known Better" and "Endless Summer Nights", reached No. 3 and No. 2, respectively.

The fourth single released from the album, "Hold On to the Nights", earned Marx his first No. 1 hit.

The latter three of the album's singles were also hits on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, beginning a long string of hits on that chart.

With the success of his self-titled album, Marx embarked on his first world tour, initially opening for REO Speedwagon, but quickly began headlining his own shows.

His first tour kept him on the road for 14 months.

In 1988, Marx was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance – Solo for "Don't Mean Nothing".

The same year, the song "Surrender to Me", which he co-wrote with Ross Vanelli, appeared in the film Tequila Sunrise.

Repeat Offender, Marx's second album, was released in May 1989.

It rose to No. 1 on Billboard's album chart.

It went triple platinum within a few months and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the United States alone.

The first two singles, "Satisfied" and the platinum-selling "Right Here Waiting", both reached No. 1.

In 2003, he won the Grammy for Song of the Year for "Dance with My Father".

In that same 2014 video segment for Ameoba Records.

Marx called Waybill "my life-long best friend" and said Waybill is also godfather to his children.

Waybill went into great detail about their working relationship in a 2020 interview with American Songwriter.