Marx began his career in music at age five, singing commercial jingles written by his father's company; his list of advertising hits includes
Arm & Hammer,
Ken-L Ration and
Nestlé Crunch. Marx was 17 and living in
Highland Park, Illinois, when a tape of his songs ended up in the hands of
Lionel Richie. Richie thought Marx had talent and told the teen, "I can't promise you anything, but you should come to L.A." Marx said one of the first musicians he met in Los Angeles was
Fee Waybill of
the Tubes with whom he has collaborated at least 30 times. They met in a recording studio. In that same 2014 video segment for Ameoba Records, Marx called Waybill "my life-long best friend" and said Waybill is also godfather to his children. Waybill went into great detail about their working relationship in a 2020 interview with
American Songwriter. Marx and
Vesta Williams provided harmony vocals for the
Gordon Lightfoot and
David Foster penned
Anything for Love, for the former's 1986 album
East of Midnight.
Debut album and stardom Marx's
self-titled debut album, released in June 1987, yielded four hit singles and went triple platinum. In 1988, Marx was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance – Solo for "Don't Mean Nothing". The same year, the song "
Surrender to Me", which he co-wrote with Ross Vanelli, appeared in the film
Tequila Sunrise.
Repeat Offender, Marx's second album, was released in May 1989. It rose to No. 1 on
Billboards album chart. It went triple platinum within a few months and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the United States alone. The first two singles, "Satisfied" and the platinum-selling "
Right Here Waiting", both reached No. 1. "Right Here Waiting" was Marx's first No. 1 hit on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart as well as his first big hit outside of North America, reaching No. 1 in several European countries and giving Marx his first top ten hit in the UK. It has been covered numerous times, most notably by
Monica and
112 in a 1998 duet. Another single from the album, "
Children of the Night", was written and composed in support of a
Van Nuys-based organization for runaways. It became the sixth single from
Repeat Offender. Marx performed
the Beatles' "
Help" at the
Berlin Wall in late 1989. Marx also received his second Grammy nomination in 1990 for
Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male for "Right Here Waiting".
1990s In 1991, Marx released his third consecutive platinum album
Rush Street. The album saw artists such as
Luther Vandross and
Billy Joel appear as backing vocalists and guest pianists. The disc's first single, "
Keep Coming Back", went to No. 12 on the Hot 100 and its second single, "
Hazard", made it to No. 9. Both songs hit No. 1 on
Billboards Adult Contemporary chart for four weeks and one week respectively. "Hazard" became Marx's second UK top ten, reaching No. 3. In early 1994, as he and his family permanently left Los Angeles behind and returned to Chicago, Marx released
Paid Vacation, and scored his fourth consecutive platinum album. The acoustic ballad "
Now and Forever" peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100, his top ten hit on that chart. The year 1997 saw the release of
Flesh and Bone, Marx's final studio album on the Capitol imprint. The disc's first single, "Until I Find You Again", hit No. 3 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart and No. 42 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Marx's
Greatest Hits compilation was released in November 1997. The 16-track album includes a variety of hit singles from his first five albums plus "Angel's Lullaby", a song written about his children originally appearing on
For Our Children, Too, a compilation CD released in 1996 to benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Greatest Hits was released in Asia in November 1998 and included two new songs, "Slipping Away" and "Thanks to You", a tribute to his mother. The album was certified
Gold in the U.S.
2000s In 2000, Marx debuted his sixth studio album, titled
Days in Avalon. This disc was released on the Signal 21 Records label founded by Marx and former
Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer and record producer
Bobby Colomby. After signing a new deal with his former label,
Manhattan Records, Marx released the 2004 album
My Own Best Enemy. In 2008, Marx released
Duo, on which he collaborated with
Vertical Horizon's lead singer
Matt Scannell. On June 12, 2008, Marx was part of a
PBS television series called
Songwriters in the Round Presents: Legends & Lyrics. In Episode 102 of the first season, Marx appeared along with
Kenny Loggins, Nathan Lee, and rock band
Three Doors Down. This episode also features an interview with singer-songwriter
Diane Warren. On October 31, 2008, "
Emotional Remains" and "
Sundown" were released, as digital downloads, on Marx's official site. On December 6, 2008, Marx headlined a fundraiser for
cystic fibrosis research, "Newsapalooza", sponsored by WLS-AM's
Roe Conn program, in which Marx both performed several of his hits with his band and accompanied Chicago broadcast news reporters and anchors covering rock hits. In an interview published in
Rolling Stone on June 26, 2009, Marx said he was "ashamed" of having been linked to a $1.92 million fine against single mother
Jammie Thomas-Rasset by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rasset had shared 24 songs on the
file-sharing website
Kazaa in 2005, and Marx's
"Now and Forever" was one of them. Marx played piano on the song "Here" and produced Matt Scannell's vocals on two tracks for
Vertical Horizon's 2009 album, entitled
Burning the Days.
2010s In March 2010, Marx released
Stories to Tell, his first fully acoustic album. On May 3, 2011, Marx was invited onto the stage at the Curran Theater in San Francisco by
Hugh Jackman. It was opening night of
Hugh Jackman in Performance. Jackman and Marx sang "Right Here Waiting" together, with Marx changing the lyrics of the last chorus to "right here waiting for Hugh". Also on May 3, 2011, the reissue of
Stories to Tell was released in the United States as a three-disc set exclusively through
Walmart. The set included a "best of" disc, an acoustic disc of tracks, and a DVD of a live concert performance at the Shepherd's Bush venue in England. The album was also made available for purchase on
iTunes and
Amazon, but without the bonus DVD and album booklet. "
Everybody" was released as a single in Europe and "When You Loved Me" was released in the U.S., peaking in the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In the summer 2011, Marx collaborated with the internet comedy duo
Rhett and Link, producing a celebrity endorsement for a colon-cleansing spa in Sacramento, California. The ad spot and its "making of" was featured on an episode of Rhett and Link's
Commercial Kings television series on
IFC. On November 1, 2011, Marx released
The Christmas EP, a five-song collection of Christmas songs. In October 2012, Marx followed up
The Christmas EP with a full album of holiday tracks that he called
Christmas Spirit. On July 8, 2014, Marx released his eleventh studio album,
Beautiful Goodbye.
2020s Marx's next album,
Limitless, was released on February 7, 2020. Its lead-off single, "
Another One Down", hit No. 14 on
Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, giving Marx a span of 32 years at the format. In 2021, he appeared in the
Family Guy episode "
Young Parent Trap". His autobiography
Stories to Tell, was released in July 2021. Marx appeared as himself and performed "
Right Here Waiting" in the 200th episode of
The Goldbergs, "The Wedding" which aired in March 2022. Marx's album
Songwriter was released on September 30, 2022, with its lead single "Same Heartbreak, Different Day" released on July 15, 2022. A previous non-album single, "Just Go" that was subsequently released as a bonus track on the album
Beautiful Goodbye is also on this album, along with the studio version of "Moscow Calling" that was also a bonus track on
Beautiful Goodbye as a remix. In 2025, Marx became a coach on
The Voice Australia, alongside
Melanie C,
Ronan Keating, and
Kate Miller-Heidke. ==Collaborations==