Richard Marx Releases Stories to Tell; Confirms He Wrote Clarkson/Daughtry Duet
On Tuesday, May 3rd, Stories to Tell, the new CD/DVD set by Richard Marx, arrives in Walmart stores nationwide. The three disc collection features one disc of greatest hits, one disc of acoustic, stripped-down versions of Richard's best-known tracks, and a DVD of a concert recorded last November in London. That show marked the first time Richard had performed in England in 20 years.
Richard said of his decision to do an exclusive Walmart release, "[They] were like, 'Yeah! We love this idea!' and so it just sort of made sense. I think it's probably smart for someone like me...to compete in a way that makes sense, rather than compete on a bigger level with Lady Gaga and whoever else." Richard says a Walmart release targets, as he puts it, "an audience that would be more inclined to be more receptive to a new record by me."
Of the three discs, Richard is the most excited about the stripped-down ones, because he says it helps keep his songs fresh, even though he's been performing them for two decades now. He explains, "To take some of these songs that I wrote...on piano and take them to guitar or vice versa...for me...to turn them on their ear a little bit it opens up another layer to them. I'm finding that I'm just not ever tired of singing [them.]"
In addition to his own songs, Richard has had a very successful career for the past 15 years or so writing songs for other artists.
He confirms that he's more recently co-written a song called "One More Yesterday" that Kelly Clarkson and Chris Daughtry have recorded as a duet. Kelly has stated publicly that her new album contains a duet with someone that fans have wanted to see her sing with for quite some time, so it's possible that the track will appear on her upcoming album. Richard says, "I've heard the rough mix of it, and the singing can't be beat, between the two of them." Richard says he will also collaborate with Chris on Daughtry's forthcoming CD.
Kelly and Chris are pretty much the only American Idol alumns that Richard is a fan of. He doesn't have much use for the show at all, even though the Grammy-winning song he wrote for Luther Vandross, "Dance with My Father," was performed by Jacob Lusk on the show a few weeks ago. Richard says, "I don't think anyone is gonna sing that song and make me think about anything but just how much better Luther did it." He adds, "Nothing against the guy who sang it...it's just sort of my issue with Idol overall...it's all karaoke. There's nothing original...about that show."
http://wplj.com/Article.asp?id=2176816&spid=36851
More Info: Produced by Howard Benson & Written By Chris, Richard Marxz and Jason Wade.
Kelly <3
Yay!!! 
