Richard Marx is one of my personal favorites, yet his ranking will probably have some of the hardcore classic rock fans wanting to puke. Yes, there were plenty of nice ballads produced by Marx during his career – but there were also some sleeper ’90s rock songs that were unnoticed by many. After reviewing his career through various podcasts and video clips, he had an image of a soft rocker because of the label and not necessary from his work.
Marx ranked in the #20 spot in 2007. At that time, I had listened to almost every song he had produced. Since he has released several new albums. This usually doesn’t fair well with artists that hit their prime years earlier (see CSNY, Chicago, Boston, etc…). In Marx case, his ranking didn’t seem to be hit on his new records.
Yes, they weren’t groundbreaking or amazing. But they were listenable. Very few, if any, songs were complete wastes of time. He might not have produced tons of radio hits like he did with his first several albums, but they were fine.
When you get math involved, Marx had some of my favorite songs. He produced enough of my favorites to jump Bon Jovi (another guilty pleasure) and some really quality rock bands (Bad Company, The Guess Who, and America).
Will Marx be able to stay in the top 20 when all is said and done? It’s gonna be tough. He is 13 right now and we have endless bands to go. He is still producing records, so maybe he gets me another “Hazard”.
Read my full artist breakdown of Richard Marx.
Next Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival.
