''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 Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stati ...

. 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 John Waldo "Fee" Waybill (born September 17, 1950,) is the lead singer and songwriter of San Francisco band The Tubes. Waybill has also worked with other acts, including Toto, Richard Marx, and Billy Sherwood. Early life and education Waybil ...

. # "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 "Endless Summer Nights" is a song performed by American rock singer Richard Marx, released in January 1988 as the third single from his eponymous debut album. The song peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. pop and Adult Contemporary charts. Background and ...

(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 "Don't Mean Nothing" is the debut single by singer/songwriter/producer Richard Marx from his triple platinum 1987 eponymous album. It hit No. 1 on ''Billboard''s Album Rock Tracks chart and No. 3 on the Hot 100. With the chart success of "Don't M ...

" (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 # "

" (Live performance) – 4:25

Personnel

– 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 The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

(2, 4), keyboards (10) *

J. T. Corenflos Jerry Troy "J. T." Corenflos (November 6, 1963 – October 24, 2020), was an American session musician and country guitarist, who played on an estimated 75 Number One hit records as well as hundreds of other recordings and hits. He received 14 n ...

– 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 Michael Barakan (born 29 April 1954), known as Shane Fontayne, is an English rock guitarist. Active since the 1970s, he was the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen during the 1992–1993 "Other Band" Tour, as Springsteen had disbanded his own E St ...

– 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 Glenn Worf is an American bassist known mainly for his work as a session musician. He has recorded with many major country music acts and also tours with Mark Knopfler. Early life and education Worf was born in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in Madis ...

– 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 Matt Laug (born March 17, 1968) is an American drummer who has played with many bands/artists such as AC/DC, Alanis Morissette, Alice Cooper, Slash's Snakepit and Vasco Rossi. Laug moved to Los Angeles after graduating from South Florence High ...

– drums (4, 7) * John Blasucci – drum programming (5) *

Greg Bissonette Gregg Bissonette (born June 9, 1959) is an American jazz and rock drummer and vocalist. He is the brother of bassist Matt Bissonette, with whom he frequently collaborates. Bissonette is known for playing and recording many different styles of m ...

– drums (6, 8, 11) * Matt Walker – drums (9) *

Eric Darken Eric A. Darken is an American percussionist, composer, and programmer. Biography Drawing inspiration from his grandfather, a band leader. Darken began playing drums at age 12, and played timpani and mallets in high school. Darken attended ...

– 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 Jessica Danielle Andrews Chagnon (born December 29, 1983) is an American country music singer. At age 15 in mid-1999, she made her debut on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts with the single "I Will Be ...

– 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