And the Hello and welcome to episode 158 of soda Jerker on songwriting.

This is Simon here with Brian,

and joining us today is an American singer, songwriter,

and musician, who to date has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

He was the first solo artist to have his first seven singles reach the top five

on the Billboard Hot 100, and he also holds the distinction of having a song he wrote or

co-wrote top the charts in four different decades.

In a long and distinguished career he's worked with the likes of Lionel Ritchie, Luther

Vandros, Shear, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Striseand, Ensign, Keith Urban,

Whitney Houston, Ringo Starr, Bear Bacharach,

and David Foster to name a few.

We're delighted to welcome the excellent Richard Marks to the show.

We've been after Richard for quite some time haven't we bry?

Yes indeed since the early days of the show in fact.

Eventually he realized he couldn't run from us forever.

He put up a good fight though.

Sure did. First time we've had to resort to the Taser.

We chatted to Richard a couple of weeks ago just prior to the release of his brand new studio album, Limitless,

which is out now, and he was on terrific form, as you'll hear in just a few minutes.

Our guest was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1963

and grew up in a musical household.

His mother Ruth sang and his dad Dick Marks

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