Songoftheday 3/21/19 - Whenever I'm weary from the battles that rage in my head, you make sense of madness when my sanity hangs by a thread...
from the album Paid Vacation (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 23
Today's song of the day comes from pop singer/songwriter Richard Marx, who we last saw with his deep and nuanced album Rush Street, which spun off three big pop hits with "Keep Coming Back", "Take This Heart", and the top ten story-song "Hazard". Three years later, Marx re-emerged with his fourth studio album, Paid Vacation. In the span of time between the release of his self-titled debut in 1987 to this set, the musical landscape in America had changed tremendously, as MOR pop music had been outshined by hard rock/grunge and hip-hop/rap music. But instead of trying to change with the times, Marx kept on doing what he did best, which is make squishy love songs for (mostly) women and wedding DJs. That's most obvious in the ready-for-the-aisle-walk first single "Now And Forever". Written and produced by Marx, the tender ballad doesn't pave any new ground, rather than finetune a pattern. (However I can't get "You've Got A Friend" out of my head when I hear the opening acoustic guitar line...)
"Now And Forever" became Richard's ninth and to date final top ten pop hit in March of 1994. The song was a huge hit on "easy listening" radio, spending eleven weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary radio format chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Canada (#6) and Norway (#8), and made the top-40 in Sweden (#11), the UK (#13), Australia (#16), Ireland (#18), and New Zealand (#21).
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Richard went on Australian TV to promote the single, and yes, this is the result..
Here's Richard live in 2012 on his Night Out With Friends concert DVD...
and lastly, on an Asian TV appearance in 2017...
Up tomorrow: Large and in charge singer sees his ambitions out.
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