’80s crooner Richard Marx ‘fell in love’ with Madonna and was discovered by Lionel Richie — while still in high school
nypost.com“Hold On to the Nights” and “Right Here Waiting” — as well as hits for everyone from ’N Sync (“This I Promise You”) to Luther Vandross (“Dance with My Father”).But even he had to defer to one legendary tunesmith on his new album, “Songwriter,” out Friday.
That would be Burt Bacharach — the 94-year-old composer behind classics such as “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”“I’m supposed to go to his house to write with him.
The night before I get this call from him, saying, ‘Can you send me the lyrics? I write [music] to lyrics,’ ” Marx, 59, told The Post. “I write the complete opposite way.
I write music, and then I write lyrics to the music. So I start sweating and then I said, ‘Can you give me a couple hours?’ ”The result is the piano-laden love song “Always,” which is featured in the ballads section of “Songwriter.” Marx’s ambitious latest is split into genres — pop, rock and country — on three other sections, each of which gets five tracks. “The thing that I’m the most proud of in my career is the diversity of my songwriting,” said Marx, whose golden pen has found success whether it be for Josh Groban (“To Where You Are”) or Keith Urban (“Long Hot Summer”).The latter returned the favor on the recent single “One Day Longer,” while Marx also gets “Songwriter” support from Darius Rucker, Chris Daughtry, as well as his sons Lucas, 30, and Jesse, 28. “My sons grew up watching how much I love what I do, and I’m sure that that was a big influence on them,” said Marx, whose oldest son, Brandon, 32, is also a musician.Marx himself learned from the best, singing backup for ’80s pop superstars Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston and Madonna before his 1987 self-titled.
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