Miami Herald Logo

Richard Marx says hello again with his new album, ‘Beautiful Goodbye’ | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

People

Richard Marx says hello again with his new album, ‘Beautiful Goodbye’

    ORDER REPRINT →

July 08, 2014 12:00 AM

Richard Marx, who sang of Endless Summer Nights and a love to endure for Now and Forever, wants to seduce you.

His new album, Beautiful Goodbye — his first studio set in six years, out Tuesday — is a departure in sound. Melodic trance soundscapes of contemporary electronic dance music are married to warm, cinematic orchestral backing tracks.

The music, some of his richest yet, came first — it almost always comes before the lyrics, he said. The vibe was inspired by some of the artists the Chicago-born songwriter has been listening to lately: Bebel Gilberto. Sade. Burt Bacharach. Antonio Carlos Jobim. Chopin. DJ Morgan Page.

But the biggest departure is the subject matter.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Marx, 50, is single for the first time in his adult life after recently ending a 25-year marriage to singer-actress Cynthia Rhodes ( Staying Alive) with whom he raised three sons. He’s writing about the carnal pleasures of what two people do in the dark.

Seduction. Passion. Loss and acceptance. Now and Forever, meet Right Here Right Now.

“I found that as I was making this album that it was a whole series of stories about seduction and not romance in the same way I’ve always written about it before,” Marx said while driving around Los Angeles.

“I’ve written so many songs about forever and eternity and that kind of bond, and I found myself enjoying the idea about writing about the mysterious dance two people do when they’re circling each other and are first together. The central theme through the album is surrendering to the feelings that are bigger than you are,” Marx said.

If there’s an aural antecedent, one might reference the slinky soul of Keep Coming Back from his third album, Rush Street (1991 ). “That was the first time I really wrote a sexy song. Not a romantic song but a sexy song. Plus, I had Luther Vandross singing along with me on that,” he said.

A year before Vandross died, Marx collected a 2004 Song of the Year Grammy for co-writing Vandross’ Dance With My Father. Writing for others has always been Marx’s lucrative outlet between projects and changes in pop radio taste. As such, he’s been able to avoid many pitfalls.

“I made it all about the music,” he said. “I was never terribly interested in trying to enlarge my celebrity. To me, that is a drug that you never get enough of. The records I made were more famous than I ever was because I didn’t cultivate that level of celebrity many do. I had more of a sane life because of that.”

Marx has composed multiformat hits for Barbra Streisand, Keith Urban, Josh Groban, Daughtry, Vince Gill, Jennifer Nettles, Kenny Rogers and Natalie Cole. Urban’s 2011 country hit, Long Hot Summer, enabled Marx to claim authorship of a No. 1 single in four separate decades.

The biggest of his No. 1 hits, Right Here Waiting in 1989, was first pitched to Streisand. She loved the melody, she told him, but she couldn’t sing the lyrics as written so Marx recorded the ballad.

Marx still has the voice-mail message she left, he said, laughing. “We’re friends. I see her a couple times a year, and I adore her. When I tell her that story she still laughs and says, ‘I make no apologies. I’m not going to be right here waiting for anyone.’ ”

HOWARD COHEN

Follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

  Comments  

Videos

Shakira shows her boxing skills at the Miami Beach Police Department

Alonzo Mourning talks about Team USA in 2012

View More Video

Trending Stories

Haitian police arrest five Americans who claimed they were on a ‘government mission’

February 18, 2019 06:37 PM

Man arrested after climbing crane near FIU to ask Trump for mercy for Cuban exile bomber

February 18, 2019 08:44 AM

A Florida 6th-grader called the Pledge of Allegiance ‘racist.’ Then he got arrested.

February 18, 2019 08:59 AM

Double vision: Miami will host Miami in future football game

February 18, 2019 06:36 PM

Why were former members of the U.S. military driving around Haiti heavily armed?

February 19, 2019 07:49 PM

Read Next

Police dismiss tip Smollett, 2 brothers together in elevator

Latest News

Police dismiss tip Smollett, 2 brothers together in elevator

By DON BABWIN Associated Press

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 20, 2019 02:07 AM

Chicago police have investigated but dismissed a tip that on the night "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett reported being attacked by two masked men he was in an elevator of his apartment building with two brothers questioned in the probe.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE PEOPLE

In Nigeria, film stars deploy to plead for election peace

People

In Nigeria, film stars deploy to plead for election peace

February 20, 2019 04:33 AM
Artist probes Russia’s toxic legacy through family history

People

Artist probes Russia’s toxic legacy through family history

February 20, 2019 03:37 AM
Royale rumble: ‘Apex Legends’ smashing ‘Fortnite’ records

People

Royale rumble: ‘Apex Legends’ smashing ‘Fortnite’ records

February 20, 2019 02:48 AM
Former Dodgers great Don Newcombe dies at 92

People

Former Dodgers great Don Newcombe dies at 92

February 20, 2019 01:43 AM
‘Fight Back!’ consumer reporter David Horowitz dies

People

‘Fight Back!’ consumer reporter David Horowitz dies

February 20, 2019 01:39 AM
Judge to consider Weinstein appeal of sex trafficking ruling

People

Judge to consider Weinstein appeal of sex trafficking ruling

February 20, 2019 01:35 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story