Stories to Tell

A Memoir

Richard Marx

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781982169435
• eBook ISBN: 9781982169473
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

*National Bestseller* Legendary musician Richard Marx offers an enlightening, entertaining look at his life and career. 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 (and second solo artist overall after Whitney Houston) 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 how Kenny Rogers changed a single line of a song he'd written for him then asked for a 50% cut—which inspired Marx to write one of his biggest hits. He tells the uncanny story of how he wound up curled up on the couch of Olivia Newton-John, his childhood crush, watching Xanadu. He shares the tribulations of working with the all-female hair metal band Vixen and appearing in their video. 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. Stories to Tell is a remarkably candid, wildly entertaining memoir about the art and business of music.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Prologue: October 2019
• Chapter 1: Where Do I Begin?
• Chapter 2: “I Wanna Be Free”
• Chapter 3: “The One You Need”
• Chapter 4: “You Are”
• Chapter 5: “Crazy”
• Chapter 6: “Guilty” (Barbra, Part I)
• Chapter 7: “She’s a Beauty”
• Chapter 8: “White Heat”
• Chapter 9: “Should’ve Known Better”
• Chapter 10: “Manhunt”
• Chapter 11: “Somebody Loves You”
• Chapter 12: “If I Turn You Away”
• Chapter 13: “Endless Summer Nights”
• Chapter 14: “Don’t Mean Nothing”
• Chapter 15: “Hold On to the Nights”
• Chapter 16: Riding the Speedwagon
• Chapter 17: “Edge of a Broken Heart”
• Chapter 18: “Burning of the Heart” (The Richard Marx Amendment)
• Chapter 19: “Right Here Waiting” (Barbra, Part II)
• Chapter 20: “Angelia”
• Chapter 21: The Elvis Incident
• Chapter 22: “You’re the Voice”
• Chapter 23: The Tale of Taipei
• Chapter 24: It’s a Boy, It’s a Boy, It’s a Boy
• Chapter 25: “Keep Coming Back”
• Chapter 26: “Hazard”
• Chapter 27: “Suddenly”
• Chapter 28: Elton and the Disappearing Tooth
• Chapter 29: “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”
• Chapter 30: “The Way She Loves Me”
• Chapter 31: Oprah, O.J., and Me
• Chapter 32: “Through My Veins”
• Chapter 33: “The One That Got Away”
• Chapter 34: “If You Ever Leave Me” (Barbra, Part III)
• Chapter 35: “This I Promise You”
• Chapter 36: “To Where You Are” (The Mistake That Went to Number 1)
• Chapter 37: “Dance with My Father”
• Chapter 38: The Perfect Man’s Imperfection
• Chapter 39: “Gone Country”
• Chapter 40: “Better Life”
• Chapter 41: A Successful Marriage
• Chapter 42: “Eyes on Me”
• Chapter 43: “Always”
• Chapter 44: “Limitless”
• Epilogue: November 2020
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright