Todd Rundgren Net Worth

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About Todd Rundgren

After experiencing a period in which he was convinced that he would never again be able to work as a performing artist, Rundgren contacted Albert Grossman with the concept of what would eventually become his first solo record, titled Runt. Runt was an album that was released in the middle of 1970. At the time of its initial release, the album was simply referred to as “Runt” rather than Rundgren’s name since Rundgren was anxious about beginning a full-fledged solo career.

The CD had an upbeat feel and included tracks that were influenced by Laura Nyro. It was recorded with Tony Fox Sales, who was 17 years old at the time, playing bass, and Hunt Sales, who was 14 years old at the time, playing drums.

Todd Harry Rundgren was born in Pennsylvania’s capital city of Philadelphia. Ruth (née Fleck) and Harry W. Rundgren welcomed their first child, a son, on June 22, 1948. His mother was of Austrian and German lineage, while his father was of Swedish descent. He was of mixed ancestry. He was a native of the neighboring town of Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, where he spent his childhood, and he taught himself how to play the guitar with very little outside assistance.

At the age of 17, he co-founded his first band with his then-best friend and roommate Randy Reed, as well as Reed’s younger brother. The band was given the name “Money”. Following his graduation from Upper Darby High School in 1966, Rundgren relocated to Philadelphia and began his career playing in a blues rock band called Woody’s Truck Stop. The band was modeled after the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Rundgren was a member of the band for a period of eight months, during which time they rose to prominence as Philadelphia’s most well-known band. In 1968, following the production of four demo CDs, the Nazz were given a recording contract by Screen Gems Columbia, a division of Atlantic Records (SGC). They were whisked away to ID Sound studio in Los Angeles in order to record their debut album there.

Both “Open My Eyes” and “Hello It’s Me” the B-side of Nazz’s first record, which was released in July 1968, were written by Rundgren. The single was the band’s first taste of success. After that, they came out with three albums, titled, respectively, Nazz (October 1968), Nazz Nazz (April 1969), and Nazz III (1971).

After leaving Nazz, Rundgren, then 21 years old, gave some thought to working as a computer programmer for a short period of time before concluding that being a producer was his true vocation. After moving to New York in the summer of 1969, he became active in the Greenwich Village club scene, particularly Steve Paul’s Scene, and made connections with a number of Manhattan musicians and fashion designers.

Albert Grossman made a promise to Todd Rundgren that he would become the “highest-paid producer in the world” if Bearsville Studios got its own record imprint. This promise was ultimately fulfilled. According to Rundgren, at first he was relegated to different old folk musicians that they had who required an upgrade. These artists included Ian & Sylvia, James Cotton, and other artists in Albert’s stable. [26] Soon after releasing Great Speckled Bird’s self-titled album in 1969, Rundgren was soon called Bearsville’s “boy wonder” This nickname stuck for the rest of Rundgren’s career.

Late in 1971, Rundgren was brought in to complete Badfinger’s third studio album, Straight Up. George Harrison had walked away from the project in order to organize the Concert for Bangladesh, which was held in London. Even though Rundgren was not given credit for the album’s first song (titled “Day After Day”), the album and its two singles were both very successful. However, Rundgren did not get production income for the first single because he was not acknowledged for it.

In February 1972, shortly after Bearsville had struck a long-term distribution contract with Warner Bros. Records, Something/Anything?, the first album officially distributed under the name “Todd Rundgren” was released. This album was the first to be credited to Rundgren.

This album featured a number of tracks that would go on to become his most famous. There are some long jams and studio banter in addition to the conventional pop tunes, such as the spoken-word track called “Intro” The album reached its highest position on the Billboard 200 at number 29 and was awarded gold status after three years. On the Billboard Hot 100, the lead single “I Saw the Light” reached its highest position at number 16. “Hello It’s Me” which was released later in 1973, climbed all the way to number 5 in the charts.

The month of March in 1973 saw the release of A Wizard, a True Star. Rundgren insisted that the songs should only be listened to in the context of the album, hence he did not allow any of the tracks from the album to be released as singles. Its debut coincided with the success of the “Hello It’s Me” record, which established Rundgren as a ballad singer and earned him a reputation for being one.

Rundgren also created a highly demanding stage act with a band that would later become known as Utopia Mark I. This band consisted of keyboardist Dave Mason, synthesizer specialist Jean-Yves “M Frog” Labat, Tony Sales, and Hunt Sales. Following the completion of Utopia’s first successful tour, which took place between March and April 1974, Todd Rundgren went on to produce the albums War Babies by Hall & Oates and The Handsome Devils by Hello People. The band released their first recording, an LP named Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, as their debut recording.

One of the songs on A Wizard, a True Star was called “Rock N Roll Pussy” and it was directed towards John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles. Because of some remarks Rundgren made in the February issue of Melody Maker magazine in 1974, Rundgren and John Lennon became involved in a petty argument with one another.

Rundgren marked his tenth year as a working musician with the release of the album Faithful, which came out in May of 1976. One side of the album contained original songs, and the other side featured covers of notable songs from 1966. These tracks included “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” by the Yardbirds, “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys, and two songs written by John Lennon that were recorded by the Beatles.

In addition to this, he established Utopia Sound Studios in Lake Hill, New York, which is located not far from Woodstock. He also purchased a house in the area, in addition to an adjacent piece of property, in order to provide lodging for musicians who worked at the studio. Rundgren continued to operate out of his headquarters at the Lake Hill compound located on Mink Hollow Road for the following six years.

In May of 1978, Hermit of Mink Hollow was made available to the public. It was hailed as a “return to form” after the string of progressive records with Utopia and was popularly regarded as his most immediately accessible work since Something/Anything?. It received more public attention and radio airplay than most of Rundgren’s efforts since A Wizard, a True Star and was praised as a “return to form.”

1981 was the year that saw the release of the concept album Healing. His music video for the song “Time Heals” was one of the first videos to be broadcast on MTV. Additionally, a film that he produced for RCA and which featured Gustav Holst’s The Planets was utilized as a demonstration for the company’s videodisc players. His history working with computer graphics stretches all the way back to 1981.

Rundgren secured a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, and the label released his second album, titled A Cappella (1985). This album was created through the use of Rundgren’s multi-tracked voice, and it was supported by arrangements built solely from programmed vocal samples.

In 1986, Rundgren contributed original music to four episodes of the long-running and critically acclaimed children’s television show Pee-Playhouse. In the middle of the 1990s, Rundgren released two CDs that he had recorded under the alias TR-i, which stood for “Todd Rundgren interactive” The first of these, titled “No World Order,” was released in 1993 and featured hundreds of short musical excerpts lasting only a few seconds each that the listener was free to assemble in any way they saw fit.

In spite of the passing of bassist Benjamin Orr in late 2005 and the lack of enthusiasm shown by former lead singer Ric Ocasek, the Boston-based band the Cars were making preparations to reunite in the latter half of 2005. Following this, there were rumors that Rundgren had joined Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes in rehearsals for a potential new Cars lineup.

The album Johnson by Todd Rundgren featured cover versions of songs originally recorded by Robert Johnson and was released in April of 2011. It had been recorded more than a year earlier. In 2011, Rundgren released an album titled (re)Production, which included him playing cover versions of songs that he had previously produced for other artists. Some of these songs included “Walk Like a Man” by Grand Funk Railroad and “Dear God” by XTC.

In late 2019, Rundgren participated in a tour titled “It Was Fifty Years Ago Today – A Tribute to the Beatles’ White Album” alongside Micky Dolenz, Jason Scheff, Christopher Cross, and Joey Molland of Badfinger. The tour was held in honor of the Beatles’ White Album and marked its 50th anniversary.

In 2020, the track “Down With The Ship” was released as a result of a collaboration between Rundgren and Rivers Cuomo, the frontman for Weezer. In December, he published his English adaptation of the song “Flappie” which had been written and performed in 1978 by the Dutch comic Youp van ‘t Hek. In April of that year, he got back again with Sparks, 50 years after making their first record, and they came out with a single titled “Your Fandango”.