Full length HQ version Something Anything 1972 Todd Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972. Beginning his career in Woody's Truck Stop, Rundgren left the band to form the garage rock group Nazz in 1967. The group gained minor recognition with the Rundgren-penned songs "Open My Eyes" and "Hello It's Me". (He later recorded a solo, uptempo version of "Hello It's Me"; it became one of his signature songs). Nazz released three albums during this time - Nazz (1968), Nazz Nazz (1969), and Nazz III (1970). Rundgren's distinctive style was influenced by a wide variety of music - British pop-rock (notably The Beatles, The Who, The Yardbirds, Cream and The Move), the intricate vocal harmonies of the The Beach Boys and classic American rock'n'roll. Particularly during the early years of his career, Rundgren's songwriting was heavily influenced by the music of singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. Rundgren's debut solo album Runt (1970) includes the strongly Nyro-influenced "Baby Let's Swing", which was written about her and mentions her by name. Nazz manager Michael Friedman, who had joined Albert Grossman management, brought Rundgren to the firm where he became both a solo artist and producer for many artists in the Grossman stable. After leaving Nazz in 1969, Rundgren alternated production work for other groups with his career as a recording artist. He became one of the first artists signed to the Bearsville Records label established by Albert Grossman and in 1970 he formed the 'band' Runt, consisting of Hunt Sales on drums, his brother Tony Sales on bass, who went on to play with Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Tin Machine). Rundgren himself wrote, produced, sang and played guitars, keyboards and other instruments. Whether Runt can really be described as a band, or simply a pseudonym for Rundgren as a solo artist is unclear—for the album Runt (1970) the group appeared to be a bona-fide trio, but on their second album Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971), Hunt Sales plays only on two tracks and is replaced by N.D. Smart on the rest of the album. Furthermore, only Rundgren is pictured on the covers of both albums, and both albums have been subsequently reissued with the same titles and cover art, but bearing the artist credit "Todd Rundgren". Whether a solo artist or a band, "Runt" had a #20 hit in the U.S. with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" in 1970, and two other Runt songs placed in the lower reaches of the Hot 100. By 1972, the "Runt" persona/band identity had been abandoned and Rundgren's next project, the ambitious double-LP Something/Anything? (1972) was credited simply to Rundgren, who wrote, played, sang, engineered and produced everything on three of the four sides of the album, with side four being live takes with a full band. Something/Anything? featured the top 20 U.S. hits "I Saw The Light" (#16) and a remake of the Nazz near-hit "Hello It's Me", which reached #5 in the U.S. and is Rundgren's biggest hit. Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings as solo artist, and during the seventies and eighties with the band Utopia. He has also been extremely active as a producer and engineer on the recorded work of other musicians. During the 1970s and 1980s, Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including Stage Fright by The Band, We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad, Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf (now ranked as the fifth biggest-selling album of all time), and Skylarking by XTC. In the 1980s and 1990s his interest in video and computers led to Rundgren's "Time Heals" being the eighth video played on MTV. His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light" which have heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day" featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers. This video falls under Fair Use Copyright Law as described in Title 17 USC, Chapter 107. Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another's work for historical and/or educational purposes, as well as for criticism, critique and commentary. .

• published: 07 Nov 2010
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