''My Own Best Enemy'' is the seventh studio album by
soft rock
Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...
singer-songwriter
Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
Marx's first number one success as a songwriter came in 1984 with " What About Me?", which was recorded by Kenny Rogers ...
. The album hit No. 126 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' album chart in 2004.
The album produced two singles, "When You're Gone" and "Ready to Fly." Both of them reached the
'Hot Adult Top 40' chart. "Ready To Fly" also hit No. 22 on the
adult contemporary chart.
[
The album marked a return to the microphone for Marx, who had spent the early-2000s as a successful songwriter and producer, after the comparatively weak commercial reception of his last album in 2000.]
, the album had sold a total of 56,958 copies in America per Nielsen SoundScan
Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...
.
Track listing
All songs written by Richard Marx, except "Suspicion" co-written by Fee Waybill.
# "Nothing Left to Say" – 3:57
# "When You're Gone" – 4:24
# "One Thing Left" – 3:55
# "Loves Goes On" – 3:35
# "Ready to Fly" – 4:39
# "Again" – 6:17
# "Colder" – 3:09
# "Everything Good" – 3:18
# "The Other Side" – 4:56
# "Someone Special" – 4:15
# "Suspicion" – 3:56
# "Falling" – 5:13
Bonus tracks on Japanese release
• " Endless Summer Nights (Live version)" – 4:30
Bonus tracks on U.S. Target exclusive release
7243 4 73450 2 9
# " Should've Known Better" (Acoustic) – 3:46
# " Don't Mean Nothing" (Acoustic) – 3:57
# " When You're Gone" (Acoustic) – 3:44
# "Hazard
A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would potentially allow them to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probability of that ...
" (Acoustic) – 4:10
# " Endless Summer Nights" (Live performance) – 4:25
Personnel
* Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
Marx's first number one success as a songwriter came in 1984 with " What About Me?", which was recorded by Kenny Rogers ...
– arrangements, lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 4–6, 8, 10, 11), acoustic guitar (1–3, 5–7, 9, 11, 12), additional electric guitar (5), acoustic piano (5), string arrangements (5, 9, 12), electric guitar (8, 10, 11), keyboards (8, 9), synth bass (9)
* David Cole – virtual synthesizer (2, 6), synthesizers (7, 11), string arrangements (9), keyboard pad (12)
* Gary Smith – Hammond B3 organ (2, 4), keyboards (10)
* J. T. Corenflos – electric guitar (1, 3, 10, 12), guitars (2)
* Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban ( né Urbahn; 26 October 1967) is an Australian and American country singer, songwriter and guitarist. Recognised with four Grammy Awards, he has also received 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves Int ...
– guitars (2), guitar solo (2), backing vocals (2), additional guitar (3)
* Michael Landau
Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record-producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitchel ...
– guitars (4, 7), additional electric guitar (5), electric guitar (8), guitar solo (8)
* Michael Thompson – acoustic guitar (5), electric guitar (5, 9), guitars (6)
* Shane Fontayne – guitars (6), electric guitar (8, 11)
* Bruce Gaitsch
Bruce R. Gaitsch (; born February 7, 1953) is an American guitarist, composer, and producer. He is best known for working with notable bands and musicians such as Chicago, Peter Cetera, Madonna, and Agnetha Fältskog as a session musician and son ...
– acoustic guitar (10)
* Paul Franklin – steel guitar
A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...
(10)
* Glenn Worf – bass (1–3, 10, 12)
* Lance Morrison – bass (4, 7)
* Mark Browne – bass (6, 8, 11)
* Steve Brewster – drums (1–3, 5, 10, 12)
* Matt Laug – drums (4, 7)
* John Blasucci – drum programming (5)
* Greg Bissonette – drums (6, 8, 11)
* Matt Walker – drums (9)
* Eric Darken – percussion (4, 9)
* Stephen Balderston – cello (3, 8)
* Cliff Colnot – cello orchestration (3)
* Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for ov ...
– string arrangements (5)
* Jessica Andrews – backing vocals (4)
The Amazing Nashville String Players
*Cello
** Anthony LaMarchina
** Carol Rabinowitz
** Sari Reist
*Violin
** David Angell
** David Davidson
** Connie Ellisor
** Gerald Greer
** Connie Heard
** Pam Sixfin
** Chris Teal
** Kathy Umstead
** Mary Kathryn Vanosdale
*Viola
** Jim Grosjean
** Gary Vanosdale
** Kris Wilkinson (also string contractor)
Production
* Producers – David Cole and Richard Marx
* Recorded and Mixed by David Cole
* Additional Engineering – Matt Prock
* Art Direction and Design – Beth Middleworth
* Creative Director – Gordon H. Lee
* Cover Photo – Paul Elledge
* Other Photos – Clay Patrick McBride
* Management – Wayne Issak and Karen Scott for Issak Entertainment.
Charts
Singles
References
{{Authority control
2004 albums
Albums produced by Richard Marx
Manhattan Records albums
Richard Marx albums