How Richard Marx Created the Song "Right Here Waiting"
"Right Here Waiting" is a famous ballad by American singer and songwriter Richard Marx. The composition conquered the world charts, taking leading positions in the hit parades of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States. In the United States, the track rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and later received platinum status from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2013, on the eve of Valentine's Day, this song became the most popular love song among Spotify users in the UK. Its recognition and emotional depth inspired many musicians to cover versions, which is why it remains in demand today.
The Story Behind the Song Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx
Richard Marx created "Right Here Waiting" while on tour, dedicating it to his wife, actress Cynthia Rhodes, who was filming in South Africa at the time. The song was originally intended for Barbra Streisand, but the singer ultimately declined to perform it.
At the time, Marx was just beginning his career as a singer and songwriter when Streisand approached him about writing a potential hit for her. However, after he sent her a demo of "Right Here Waiting," she turned him down. In an interview, Marx recalled:
“I had just finished 'Right Here Waiting,' and it was so personal that I wasn't even planning on recording it. I was like, 'I'm going to give this to Barbra Streisand and not do anything with it.' I had to send her a demo tape. The next day she called me back — I still have the voicemail — and she said, 'Richard, I listened to your song; it's great, but I need you to change the lyrics because I'm not going to wait for anyone.' She did me a huge favor, to tell you the truth. If she hadn't turned it down, I probably would never have released it myself. Sometimes I see her and I say, 'Thank you for turning my song down!'”
Richard Marx is an American singer and songwriter, born September 16, 1963 in Chicago to a family of musicians and advertisers: his father, Dick Marx, wrote jingles, and his mother, Ruth, was a member of the company's choir. At the age of twelve, Richard was already recording commercials for the family studio, and at seventeen, inspired by a letter of praise from Lionel Richie, he moved to Los Angeles. There, he initially sang backing vocals for Richie and Kenny Loggins, wrote for Kenny Rogers, and by 1986, he had signed a solo contract with EMI/Manhattan.
"Right Here Waiting" was released in December 1988, when Marx was touring the world in support of his debut, and his fiancée, actress and dancer Cynthia Rhodes, was filming in South Africa. Bored in his hotel room, Richard wrote a laconic tune on the hotel piano stand, and on top of it he scribbled the lines from the future chorus: "Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you."
The song was intended to be a gift to Rhodes and a demo for Barbra Streisand, but the singer decided it wasn't right for her; Marx kept it for himself, jokingly calling it "the most useful failure" of his career. If we talk about the meaning of the song "Right Here Waiting", it is about love, about the performer in love waiting for his beloved.
The single was released on June 29, 1989, as the second release from Repeat Offender. Radio stations immediately picked it up as the "song of the summer", and by August 12 the composition topped the Billboard Hot 100, holding the lead for three weeks in a row; it stayed at the top of the Adult Contemporary chart for six weeks. Following the US, No. 1 came to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and, especially significant for an American artist of those years, the UK (fall No. 1 UK Singles Chart). By January 1990, the circulation of the physical single in the US exceeded a million, ensuring RIAA platinum status, and total world sales exceeded four million.
Over three decades, “Right Here Waiting” has become a karaoke standard and a textbook for self-taught piano players. Richard Marx has performed the ballad with symphony orchestras on numerous occasions, and at concerts in the 2020s, he added an a capella final verse, explaining that he wanted to “remind the audience of what it sounded like in the hotel room that very night.”
The author himself has long perceived “Right Here Waiting” as a personal diary sheet that has turned into a collective memory. He jokes that “this three-minute nostalgia” pays for his sons’ education in college, but seriously adds: the song proved that in the late eighties, the public was looking not only for guitar riffs and synth explosions, but also for a quiet, almost classical declaration of love. That is why, when the first, slightly accented descending line of the piano begins to sound anywhere on the planet, the audience often responds in chorus even before Marx has time to pronounce the introductory “Oceans apart…”. The ballad, created as an intimate letter, has become a universal symbol of devotion and one of the most recognizable pop melodies of the twentieth century.
Lyrics and translation of the song Richard Marx Right Here Waiting
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