"Rio" is a song written and sung by American musician

Michael Nesmith Robert Michael Nesmith or Mike Nesmith, (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series ''The Monkees (TV seri ...

. Included on his 1977 album '' From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing'', it was released as a single. Although the single was not a hit in the US, "Rio" became Nesmith's most successful solo single in other countries. Popular interest in the song's music video rather than the song itself led Nesmith to consider creating television programming consisting of music videos. Nesmith sent a proposal he called "Popclips", which was picked up by then

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

operator

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. In a 2013 interview published in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'', Nesmith said of the "Rio" music video, "I said to people, 'It's a promotional film' ... The answer was that I simply needed to complete the equation. 'Radio is to records as television is to video.' Then it was like, 'Of course!' and thus MTV was born."

Charts

References

{{Michael Nesmith 1977 singles Songs written by Michael Nesmith