The Boy Can't Help It! Singer/Songwriter, Mark Radice: RCA at Age 7 to Writing for Top '80s Rockers
Another musician inspired by The Beatles grows up inventing tunes before he's 10. RCA is stunned: "Hey, these are actual songs!" 45s in the '60s & albums in the '70s leads to writing for rock royalty.
From the You-Gotta-Start-Somewhere Department: “I’m Just Makin’ Up Fake Beatles Songs!”
You may know this song, from 1983:
Joe Bonomo’s recent article on Dave Edmunds’ Information album (whose title track was written by Edmunds and Radice)….this article was a reminder to me of Mark’s early albums (which I had at the time), and the inspiration for this article!
How about this, “Tonight It’s You,” from the 1984 Standing on the Edge album by Cheap Trick?👇
Or, perhaps you dug this one, on Eddie Money’s Where’s the Party? 1983 album:
As there is in every Tune Tag, regular FR&B readers might suspect that there is likely a common thread running through each of these ‘80s guitar-heavy, melody-forward songs by long-established rockers (who all happen to be CBS Records artists—subsidiary Epic for Cheap Trick, and Columbia proper for Money and Edmunds)! That’s not altogether an accident…we’ll explain!
All three of the above songs were co-written by Mark Radice (ruh-DEECE), a singer/songwriter/recording artist since the 1960s!
Radice was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1957, and from 1968 to 1982 he lived in nearby Nutley, where he was inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame in 2019!
His father, Gene Radice, was a well-known recording engineer who worked with Jimi Hendrix, Velvet Underground, Cowsills, Mamas & the Papas, Vanilla Fudge, and many more. Mark began writing songs after teaching himself guitar while listening to Beatles albums.
That same year, 1964, Mark signed with RCA Records. He was 7:
Mark’s debut vinyl was a single for RCA, “Save Your Money” (above), not released until 1967, when he was ten. His father co-produced with former childhood prodigy in his own right, Artie Schroeck (who, among many other credits, co-wrote the late-’60s “Lovin’ Things,” which The Marmalade and The Grass Roots had hits with):
Two more singles followed in 1968, this time on Decca, and both written by the 11-year-old Mark. The first one, that year, was “Ten Thousand Year Old Blues,” and featured an uncredited 20-year-old Steven Tallarico on drums:
Mark’s self-penned “Richest Man in the World” closed out his Decca tenure in 1969, the year he turned 12:
Mark Enters the Album Arena
This is when I first became aware of Mark Radice: Picking up his self-titled 1972 debut album on Famous Music Corporation’s Paramount Records (he was 15). I don’t recall buying it in a store, but likely a flea market or used record store the following year in Houston, as a high school senior.
Mark wrote all the songs on it, Jerry Ross produced, and veteran, Ron Frangipane arranged with Mark. Even though MTV was still a decade away, Paramount still ponied up the dough to produce this promo video for Mark’s debut:
YouTube has the self-titled debut Mark Radice 1972 album; click here. But, I’m sharing a couple of the songs from it, below:
After a brief, half-minute toss-away song, Mark opens with this beyond-his-years mature and dynamic “New Day,” which I can still sing along with after decades of not hearing it!
Like “New Day,” the ballad, “Hey My Love,” also saw life as a single:
In fact, this may be the song that woke up the industry to Mark’s gift of tune-craft: Dion (of Dion & The Belmonts) and Australian singer, Mark Holden (see his video here), recorded covers of “Hey My Love,” as did former Marmalade lead singer, Dean Ford.
In fact, according to one YouTube commenter, former Monkees, Micky Dolenz & Davy Jones (who recorded and toured together for a time), performed it during their 1977 tour of America with The Laughing Dogs (before those new-wavers’ two albums on Columbia, 1979 and ‘80).
But, the first to cover “Hey My Love” was Montreal’s The Bells (Jacki Ralph Jamieson singing lead) in 1973 on Polydor Records/Canada (The Bells’ Frank Mills hit #3 in both the States and Canada with his “Music Box Dancer” instrumental in 1979):
Former The Marmalade lead singer, Dean Ford, performing live for TV in Holland, but synching to his single’s backing track:
Another Country Heard From
In 1973, a 16-year-old Radice was invited by Donovan to move to England, where he would contribute to Donovan’s 7-Tease 1974 album (Epic/CBS in the U.S. and UK) and the associated tour. Mark co-produced three songs on the album with Donovan: “Salvation Stomp,” “The Great Song of the Sky,” and “Ordinary Family.” Mark also played piano on this quirky tune. He was 17:
1976: Mark Grows Up and Discovers Disco
In 1976, Radice (in a noticeably lower vocal register) released his second solo album, Ain’t Nothin’ But A Party, featuring new label-mates, the 9-piece Brooklyn funk band, Brass Construction. The album included the single, Mark’s “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em,” produced by Brass Construction singer, Jeff Lane:
For 3rd Album, Shirtless Mark Gets Intense
The next year (1977, his 20th) saw Mark record his second album (third overall) for United Artists (under their new Roadshow Records affiliate and production company), titled Intense. With graphics that make it appear he’s playing a flaming piano, Mark is intentionally projecting a decidedly non-kid/non-teen image. In fact, in case we’re blinded by the piano inferno, Mark’s close-up on the back removes all doubt as to this new “adult” persona:
Again, all eight songs were written by Mark, and this one’s produced by Michael Stokes. Mark was also involved in the final mix-down with Stokes and Bob Merritt.
Notable session players include NYC stalwarts, drummer Alan Schwartzberg, bassist Will Lee (soon to be longtime Late Night with David Letterman bandmember), and jazz guitarist John Tropea. Veteran Motown “Funk Brother” trombonist, Paul Riser, arranged the horns and strings.
The lone single off Intense was the true-to-the-new-brand “It’s You My Love” b/w “Love is Free.” While Mark loosens the disco constraints of the previous album (where its six songs averaged nearly 6 minutes each), he still brings a danceable groove here, but Paul Riser’s punchy horns and deftly-applied strings lift the proceedings to a near Earth Wind & Fire catchiness (listen for Tropea’s tasteful guitar darts throughout):
Back in the Saddle with Former Drummer
As Mark’s solo recording career dimmed in the late-‘70s, he made the next most logical move for a songwriter, but not before reuniting with someone who played drums on one of his singles a decade before! Mark joined old friend Steven Tyler as he joined Aerosmith on their Draw the Line Tour in 1977, playing keyboards and contributing backing vocals!
He then signed with CBS’s publishing arm, CBS Songs (EMI in the UK), and became available to their roster of artists (and others) as the new MTV decade began. Some ended up recording his songs, but many more also became his songwriting collaborators!
This association led to collabs with Eddie Money, Dave Edmunds, Cheap Trick (as illustrated in the above videos, which brings us back to where we started)! He also wrote songs for and with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, Helix, Aldo Nova, Phyllis Hyman, Gene Simmons….and, The Muppets!
Mark reveals all about the above in the two interview videos below!
Then, There’s Always the Comedy Lane!
Mark goes live and tells his story for a 2016 radio show:
Mark podcasts the best accounting of his career story:
Mark’s original song from 2012, “Opinion”:
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Thank you! This is brilliant on so many levels. That song at age 10 is great. Don’t ask what I was doing at age 10. Or 7.
This was intense! So fascinating.