Hello It's Me

For the album by Lani Hall, see Hello It's Me (album). For other uses, see Hello (disambiguation).
"Hello It's Me"

Cover of the 1974 France single
Single by Todd Rundgren
from the album Something/Anything?
B-side "Cold Morning Light"
Released December 1972
Format 7"
Recorded 1971
Genre
Length 3:31 (single)
4:42 (album)
Label Bearsville
Writer(s) Todd Rundgren
Producer(s) Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren singles chronology
"Couldn't I Just Tell You"
(1972)
"Hello It's Me"
(1972)
"A Dream Goes On Forever"
(1974)
"Hello It's Me"

Cover of the 1969 UK single
Single by Nazz
from the album Nazz
A-side "Open My Eyes" (1968)
B-side "Crowded" (1969)
Released 1968
Format 7"
Recorded April 1968 (1968-04)
Genre Pop rock
Length 3:57
Label SGC Records
Writer(s) Todd Rundgren
Producer(s) Michael Friedman
Nazz singles chronology
"Open My Eyes"
(1968)
"Hello It's Me"
(1969)
"Not Wrong Long"
(1969)

"Hello It's Me" is a Billboard no. 5 hit song composed, recorded, and performed by Todd Rundgren, released in late 1972.

Background

Hello It's Me was the first original song by Todd Rundgren.[5] It was first recorded in 1968 by Rundgren's band Nazz and was included on their self-titled debut album. Although released as the B-side of the group's debut single "Open My Eyes" it was picked up in preference to the A-side by Boston radio station WMEX, where it rose to #1, and was subsequently picked up by other stations. It first charted in 1968 at #66 on the U.S. charts.

Rundgren's songs in this early phase of his career were heavily influenced by the work of Laura Nyro, but in a 2005 interview he revealed that the basic structure of the song was adapted from the introduction of a Jimmy Smith recording:

...the main influence for Hello It's Me was an eight bar intro that Jimmy Smith played on a recording of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.  He had this whole sort of block chord thing that he did to set up the intro of the song.  I tried to capture those changes, and those changes became what are the changes underneath Hello It's Me."  I then had to come up with melody and words, but the changes are actually almost lifted literally from something that was, from Jimmy Smith's standpoint, a throwaway.
Todd Rundgren, puremusic.com [5]

Rundgren recorded an uptempo version of Hello It's Me on his 1972 solo album Something/Anything?. Although a remake of the original, this new version became widely popular and has since become a staple of the classic rock genre. An edit of this version was released as a single in 1973 and became Rundgren's only major pop hit, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Personnel on Todd Rundgren solo (studio) version

In the media

Other versions

References

  1. Arved Ashby (December 2013). Popular Music and the New Auteur: Visionary Filmmakers After MTV. OUP USA. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-19-982735-0.
  2. Don Breithaupt; Jeff Breithaupt (29 July 2014). Precious and Few: Pop Music of the Early '70s. St. Martin's Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4668-7649-1. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  3. SPIN Media LLC (February 1993). SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. p. 53. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  4. Vibe Media Group (October 1999). Vibe. Vibe Media Group. p. 189. ISSN 1070-4701. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 Bill DeMain, "A Converstion with Todd Rundgren", puremusic.com
  6. Todd Rundgren- "Hello, It's Me" information @fleetwoodmac.net Retrieved 1-15-2011.
  7. Hello It's Me at AllMusic
  8. Hello It's Me at AllMusic
  9. "Various - GAP - Favorite Songs (Fall 2005) (CD) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2013-07-26.

External links

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