Todd Harry Rundgren is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands The Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive art. He also produced music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s.
Something/Anything? is the third album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1972. It was Rundgren's first album released under his own name, following two records credited to the quasi-group project Runt, and was also his first double album. It was recorded in late 1971 in Los Angeles, New York City and Bearsville Studios, Woodstock. The album is divided into four sections focused on different stylistic themes; the first three parts were recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals in addition to producing. The final quarter contained a number of tracks recorded live in the studio without any overdubs, save for a short snippet of archive recordings from the 1960s.
A Wizard, a True Star is the fourth studio album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released on March 2, 1973, by Bearsville Records. It marked a departure from his previous album, Something/Anything? (1972), with its lesser reliance on straightforward pop songs, a development he attributed to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs and his realization of "what music and sound were like in my internal environment, and how different that was from the music I had been making."
Initiation is the sixth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released May 23, 1975 on Bearsville Records. With this album, Rundgren fully embraced the synthesized prog sound he had begun exploring in more depth in his work with his band Utopia. However, unlike Utopia, in which Rundgren had limited himself to playing guitar, most of the synthesizers on Initiation were played and programmed by Rundgren himself.
Faithful is Todd Rundgren's seventh album, released in 1976.
Utopia was an American rock band formed in 1973 by Todd Rundgren. During its first three years, the group was a progressive rock band with a somewhat fluid membership known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Most of the members in this early incarnation also played on Rundgren's solo albums of the period up to 1975. By 1976, the group was known simply as Utopia and featured a stable quartet of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. This version of the group gradually abandoned progressive rock for more straightforward rock and pop.
Nearly Human is a 1989 album by the rock musician Todd Rundgren, released by Warner Bros. Records. It was his first release in four years, although he had been active as a producer in the intervening years. Many of the album's songs deal with loss, self-doubt, jealousy and spiritual recovery. It was also the first collaboration between Rundgren and Michele Gray, a singer and ex-model who helped to organize the sessions. Gray sang backing vocals, both on the record and on subsequent tours, and the pair later married.
Kasim Sulton is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States. As a solo artist, Sulton hit the Canadian top 40 in 1982 with "Don't Break My Heart".
Sparks, originally titled Halfnelson, is the debut album by the Los Angeles rock band Sparks. The album was first released as Halfnelson, the band's original name, and reissued a year later under the group’s new name.
"Do Ya" is a song written by Jeff Lynne, that was originally recorded by The Move, which became a hit for the Electric Light Orchestra in 1977.
Another Live is a live album by the progressive rock band Utopia. It was recorded in August 1975 and released in 1975 on Bearsville.
War Babies is the third studio album by American pop music duo Daryl Hall & John Oates. The album was released in October of 1974, by Atlantic Records. It was their last of three albums for Atlantic Records before moving to RCA Records. The album was produced by Todd Rundgren. Rundgren and other members of Utopia, his then-recently-formed prog-rock band, perform on the record.
Ra is the second studio album and third release by Utopia on Bearsville Records, released in 1977. Band leader Todd Rundgren planned on releasing the LP in 1976 on his own label, Ethereal Records, as the new four-piece line up was not signed to Bearsville. Replete with an elaborate $250,000 stage show featuring a 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) pyramid and golden sphinx which took 18 months of prep, Ra was Rundgren's most ambitious live undertaking.
Adventures in Utopia is the fourth studio album by Utopia.
With a Twist... is a 1997 album by Todd Rundgren. Asked to produce an album of new versions of his older singles, Rundgren decided to record the songs in Bossa nova style with elements of Exotica, complete with tropical bird call effects at the beginning of "Hello, It's Me" similar to Martin Denny's recording Quiet Village. Continuing the theme, Rundgren toured theaters with a replica of a tiki bar, the performers on a very small stage with selected audience members being seated at tables also on the theater stage, and being served drinks by the monitor engineer/bartender. The performers never acknowledged the larger theater audience, and the show ended when the last "bar patron" left the stage.
Oops! Wrong Planet is the third studio album by American rock band Utopia. It delivers a markedly trimmed down, pop-oriented direction for the band following the progressively influenced previous album, Ra.
POV is the ninth and final studio album by the rock group Utopia, released in January 1985. It peaked at #161 on the Billboard 200 charts. Except for a live 1992 reunion album, this was the last album released by Utopia, and Rundgren's final studio work under the Utopia banner.
Mark "Moogy" Klingman was an American musician and songwriter. He was a founding member of Todd Rundgren's band, Todd Rundgren's Utopia, and later became a solo recording artist, bandleader and songwriter. He released two solo recordings, and his songs have been covered by artists as wide-ranging as Johnny Winter, Carly Simon, James Cotton, Thelma Houston, Eric Clapton, Barry Manilow and Guns N' Roses. He played on stage with Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Luther Vandross, Lou Reed, Jeff Beck and Allan Woody & Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule. Other than Rundgren, his longest musical association may have been with Bette Midler, for whom he served as band leader and who adopted for her signature song "(You Gotta Have) Friends", composed by Klingman and William "Buzzy" Linhart.
Disco Jets is a tongue in cheek project organized and recorded by Todd Rundgren and Utopia shortly after recording Rundgren's Faithful LP and including most of the musicians from those sessions. It's an instrumental recording humorously parodying 1976's US Bicentennial celebrations, disco music, science fiction films and the CB radio fads. It was released in 2001, 25 years after its recording, as part of the Todd Archive Series Vol. 4 – "Todd Rundgren Demos and Lost Albums" 2-CD set on Rhino Entertainment/Crown Japan. It was reissued in 2012 as a standalone CD import on Esoteric Recordings and in 2015 on Cherry Red. It was also released as a limited edition vinyl that was manufactured exclusively by Cherry Red for Record Store Day, only appearing in record shops from Saturday 16 April.
Mothers Pride is the fourth studio album by American rock band Fanny, released in February 1973 on Reprise. Produced by Todd Rundgren, it was the band's last album to feature original members June Millington (guitar) and Alice de Buhr (drums), and their final album for Reprise.
