Richard Marx Talks New Album, ‘After Hours’: ‘I Have To Have a New Bucket List Now’

Trending on Billboard Richard Marx is nearing the 40th anniversary of first appearing on, and topping, Billboard charts as a lead recording artist. His initial entry, “Don’t Mean Nothing,” debuted on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart on May 23, 1987, and led the list dated that July 4. In 1988, “Hold on to the Nights” became his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he led again with his next two hits: “Satisfied and “Right Here Waiting,” in 1989. Richard MarxBrandon Marx For his latest album, he went back 40 years before his chart career began. “I pretended it was 1948 and I was a young songwriter pitching a song to Sinatra,” Marx tells Billboard of his mindset behind creating After Hours , due tomorrow (Jan. 16). With a catalog centered on pop ballads and, especially early on, crunchy rock anthems, before segueing to pop-opera (Marx wrote Josh Groban’s debut hit, “To Where You Are”), R&B (he and Luther Vandross co-wrote the latter’s Grammy-winning “Dance With My Father”) and country (he has co-penned three Hot Country Songs No. 1s, one recorded by Kenny Rogers in the mid-’80s and two by Keith Urban in the 2010s), Marx channels the American songbook on his new set. The 13-song collection blends covers of such classics as “Summer Wind,” “The Way You Look Tonight” and “Young at Heart” with originals in the same stately vein. Meanwhile, After Hours tracks such as tango invite “Magic Hour” - which Marx co-wrote with wife Daisy Fuentes - pulsate with jazzy flair, adding tempo to the album’s overall sultry vibe. Marx - whose first visit to the Hot 100’s top spot was via backing vocals on mentor Lionel Richie’s 1983 smash “All Night Long (All Night)” (“That’s me!,” he playfully points out in concert when singing the response to Richie’s call in the song’s hook) - recently chatted with Billboard about the new album, recording it live with a full band and what the ‘80s version of himself would think of his latest inventive turn. Billboard : How did the idea for the new album originate? I know you’ve been performing “Fly Me to the Moon,” the closing song on the set, in concert for a few years. Marx: That was probably the brainchild. I sort of reinvented it for myself and wrote [an] intro so that when I would do it live, no one knew what song I was doing until I got to the first line. I got so many standing ovations for that song, and it’s really fun to sing. But I guess the reason that it didn’t translate into an album sooner was because the idea of doing a standards album never appealed to me because I’m a songwriter. So, even though I love to sing, and love to sing those songs, I [couldn’t] imagine doing a covers album of any genre, because that [was] just not that interesting to me. And, I just frankly wasn’t smart enough to come up with...

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