Richard Marx Interview: New Album, ‘After Hours’

Richard Marx is nearing the 40th anniversary of first appearing on, and topping, Billboard charts as a lead recording artist. His initial entry, “Don’t Mean Nothing,” debuted on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart on May 23, 1987, and led the list dated that July 4. In 1988, “Hold on to the Nights” became his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he led again with his next two hits: “Satisfied and “Right Here Waiting,” in 1989.

For his latest album, he went back 40 years before his chart career began.

“I pretended it was 1948 and I was a young songwriter pitching a song to Sinatra,” Marx tells Billboard of his mindset behind creating After Hours, due tomorrow (Jan. 16).

With a catalog centered on pop ballads and, especially early on, crunchy rock anthems, before segueing to pop-opera (Marx wrote Josh Groban’s debut hit, “To Where You Are”), R&B (he and Luther Vandross co-wrote the latter’s Grammy-winning “Dance With My Father”) and country (he has co-penned three Hot Country Songs No. 1s, one recorded by Kenny Rogers in the mid-’80s and two by Keith Urban in the 2010s), Marx channels the American songbook on his new set. The 13-song collection blends covers of such classics as “Summer Wind,” “The Way You Look Tonight” and “Young at Heart” with originals in the same stately vein.

Meanwhile, After Hours tracks such as tango invite “Magic Hour” — which Marx co-wrote with wife Daisy Fuentes — pulsate with jazzy flair, adding tempo to the album’s overall sultry vibe.

Marx — whose first visit to the Hot 100’s top spot was via backing vocals on mentor Lionel Richie’s 1983 smash “All Night Long (All Night)” (“That’s me!,” he playfully points out in concert when singing the response to Richie’s call in the song’s hook) — recently chatted with Billboard about the new album, recording it live with a full band and what the ‘80s version of himself would think of his latest inventive turn.

Billboard: How did the idea for the new album originate? I know you’ve been performing “Fly Me to the Moon,” the closing song on the set, in concert for a few years.

Marx: That was probably the brainchild. I sort of reinvented it for myself and wrote [an] intro so that when I would do it live, no one knew what song I was doing until I got to the first line. I got so many standing ovations for that song, and it’s really fun to sing.

But I guess the reason that it didn’t translate into an album sooner was because the idea of doing a standards album never appealed to me because I’m a songwriter. So, even though I love to sing, and love to sing those songs, I [couldn’t] imagine doing a covers album of any genre, because that [was] just not that interesting to me. And, I just frankly wasn’t smart enough to come up with the idea to write half the album until a year and a half ago.

Months before I started even thinking about making After Hours, I was in the studio recording a handful of songs I’d written that really were more like tributes to ‘70s rock. I decided I wanted to make a genre record that sounded like it could have been in 1977. So I had my Stones song, my J.D. Souther song, my Eagles song, and I really was into that project. And then this thing just sidetracked me.

It was an aesthetic thing, too. I pictured myself getting dressed up and what that would look like and how that would maybe open up different kinds of gigs. And then I decided, well, let me see what happens as a writer. Like, if I can’t really come up with the goods as a songwriter on the other half of the album, then it’s pointless.

And any new compositions would have to match the quality of timeless songs.

That’s a tall order. The first song I wrote was “All I Ever Needed,” which is track two of the record. I wrote it so quickly and effortlessly. And when I realized what the chord changes I was writing in my head were, I pretended it was 1948 and I was a young songwriter pitching a song to Sinatra. And then I wrote “Magic Hour.” I was like, “Okay, this makes sense now.”

What I didn’t think of until maybe weeks later was, “Oh, I have to do this whole album live. We have to cut this live. This can’t be a computer project.” So I thought about different arrangers because I do love to arrange, but I’m not that guy. I did the arrangement on “Fly Me to the Moon,” but that was it. I had worked a couple of years ago with Rob Eckland, the main arranger/conductor for the BBC [Symphony] Orchestra. And I did a show for the BBC called Piano Room, three or four songs and Rob did the charts. He was so incredible — I just love when I run into people that are just so exceptional at what they do.

I reached out to Rob and I told him what I was doing. And he said, “That’s so right up my alley. I would love to do this with you. Why don’t I do one arrangement? I’ll mock it up for you, and if you like it then I’d love to do the whole project.” The first thing he did was “All I Ever Needed,” and I was like, “Okay, we’re in.”

So, then we booked three afternoons at Evergreen [Studios] in Burbank [Calif., in February 2025], because we needed a room big enough to house 28 people. I got [drummer] Vinnie Colaiuta, [guitarist] Dean Parks, and Randy Waldman played piano. It was my dream rhythm section. And then the idea was: “I have to sing live with everybody, because that’s what Sinatra used to do.” That’s what Dean [Martin] did. All those records back then, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Ella [Fitzgerald], Sarah Vaughan, the singers would go in and sing each take live, beginning to end. I thought, “Okay, that’s what we’re going to do.” And I dressed up every session.

It was the most fun record I’ve ever made in my life. I just was on pins and needles every day, and so many of these musicians said, “We never get to do this, to be all together and play and have it all be live and you singing  — this was such a joy for us. Please, let’s do another one and let’s go on the road.”

I was like, “If I could afford you, I’d take you on the road.”

How refreshing to hear that you wanted to do this as organically as you could.

I’m not a grumpy old man when it comes to AI. I did this record this way, even with that technology in existence, because I don’t think that there are very many people that can say that they did. I’m very proud of the fact that I chose the right musicians and that I am at a point in my vocal career where I could pull it off. So, it’s really just bragging rights. It’s so worth it.

Did you ever meet Frank Sinatra?

No. I saw him live once, though, right before he retired. I guess it would’ve been 1983 or ‘84. I was so into other kinds of music. I never didn’t respect Sinatra, and my parents certainly were fans, and I heard plenty of Sinatra growing up, but he didn’t become important to me until later in my life.

Same with Dean, and Sammy Davis Jr. — although I did see [him] when I was a kid, and he blew my mind. Same with Tony Bennett, when I was about 14. But I didn’t get into that music until I was in my 40s, really.

What was it like recording “Young at Heart” with Rod Stewart? Was that a lifetime dream come true?

Absolutely. For those people who say never meet your heroes, they clearly never met Rod Stewart [with whom Marx has toured, with more dates set]. We’ve become really good friends the last, almost three years. It was his idea to do a duet on this album with me. We were drinking at the time, so I thought, “no …” The next day, he texted me and said, “I was serious about doing a song together.” I was, like, “Really?” He said, “I was thinking maybe we should do ‘Young at Heart.’ ” I was like, “That’s perfect.”

Rod, Chris Botti and Kenny G are the only non-live parts of the record because they were overdubs on these tracks. His vocal is so incredible. To be able to cross that one off my bucket list means I have to have a new bucket list now, because the only thing left on my bucket list was working with Rod Stewart.

In the era of streaming, standards are so accessible, when before you had to listen on, maybe, 78s. Now, it’s more just another style that people can do.

It’s also the groundwork laid by Rod, his The Great American Songbook albums [in 2002-10], the entire career of Michael Bublé. I would say Michael and Rod, and to a degree, Diana Krall, really are the most responsible for making it part of modern pop music, even though they’re very old songs. So I certainly tip my hat to them.

And I think that the other reason that I made this record was because the first thought in my brain was, “This has been done.” Then the second thought was, “But when’s the last time? Oh, it’s been a while. Maybe it’s time.” I’m very proud to throw my hat in this ring.

What would younger Richard Marx think about this album?

“Dude, what the **** are you doing?! You’re ‘Don’t Mean Nothing,’ man! You can’t do this. I mean, yeah, those songs are great, but you can’t do that. What is wrong with you? What am I, 100 years old?!”

I was just so dumb, just like every other 20-something.

I feel like your father would be really proud of this album, given the arranging background that he had.

He’d be very proud of it … unless he were still alive and I used Rob Eckland to do the arrangements. He would never speak to me again.

My dad did quite a few arrangements for me [including the sweeping coda on 1990’s top 15 Hot 100 hit “Children of the Night”], and he was masterful. He was an incredible arranger, especially with horns and strings. I’ve thought about that many times. He would have done the arrangements. He would have been sitting in the control room. He would have been giving me the big thumbs up. And both my parents would have really loved this record.

The ‘70s-themed album you were talking about, is that what could come next?

Probably, who knows? I honestly don’t know about another album past this one. I never say never, and it’s possible that I might look at how [After Hours] goes and say, “I want to do another one of these,” another half-standard, half[-new] song set, because I really loved writing these songs.

There were a couple of opportunities missed because I only came up with the ideas too late. I really wanted to write a song with Paul Williams. And the other Paul I want to write another song with is Anka. He and I are great friends. When he realized what I was doing with this record, he was like, “Why the **** didn’t you have me write a song with you?” I was like, “It just happened. But I’m going to do more and I want to write a song with you.”

So, just the opportunity to work with people like that again might be a good excuse to do another album like this. The ‘70s thing, I really love what I recorded in that genre, so maybe it’ll be the palate cleanser in between the standards records. It might just be a series of [song] releases.

Hopefully if there’s an artist that listeners have grown up with and have always looked to for a new album every few years, a collection of songs, fans will still want that.

I believe that that’s true, which is why we’ve pressed [After Hours] vinyl and have CDs. If you’ve been around long enough and you have fans who are even older than you, which I do, that takes on a different set of possibilities.

You’re touring again with Rod Stewart this year. Will you play any of these songs in concert?

I’ve done “Magic Hour” two or three times now, at a couple of gigs and we used tracks. So, you hear the horns. That took me a while to wrap my brain around, because I was so anti-tracks for a while. And then I’m looking around and U2’s doing it and Coldplay’s doing it and everybody’s doing it. The audience doesn’t care. The audience isn’t going, “Hey, I’m hearing horns and I’m not seeing them. I want my money back.” Those days are long gone.

So, there’s a little bit in the show that I did the last few months. The video screen opens with this old clip of Dean Martin saying something very funny, which is: “I feel sorry for you people who don’t drink. When you wake up in the morning, that’s as good as you’re going to feel all day.”

And then we kick into “Magic Hour” and, I’m not [kidding] you, it got as big a reaction as “Hold On to the Nights” and “Right Here Waiting.” People were up and dancing. It’s such a fun song to do.