The guy who wrote the book on romance lands his highest-charting album, 'Beautiful Goodbye,' in 20 years
Richard Marx could teach a class on hit love songs. The singer-songwriter has notched 29 Billboard Hot 100 hits, the majority of them uber-romantic — from his first No. 1 as an artist, 1988's "Hold On to the Nights," to his 2011 Hot Country Songs chart-topper for Keith Urban, "Long Hot Summer." Marx, now 50 and recently divorced from his longtime wife, actress Cynthia Rhodes, says he writes "what every woman wants to hear and what every man wished he could say." With "Beautiful Goodbye" (released on Kobalt), his first album in 10 years, starting No. 39 on the Billboard 200 — his best-ever debut and highest-charting set since 1994 — Marx is romancing listeners once again.
Billboard: Did you set out to make an album that doubles as a date-night soundtrack?
Marx: I was influenced by EDM and trance. I love that because it often doesn't have a lyric to focus on; the music takes you away. It made me listen to Chopin. That is so sexy to me.