The musician who produced hits and built the future

Todd Rundgren grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, fascinated by his parents’ small record collection of show tunes and symphonic pieces, and especially by the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Later he fell for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, along with the Philadelphia soul of Gamble & Huff, the Delfonics and the O’Jays. He taught himself guitar and, at seventeen, formed his first band, Money.

After graduating in 1966 he joined Woody’s Truck Stop, a blues-rock group that became the most popular in Philadelphia. He stayed eight months, then left with bassist Carson Van Osten to form Nazz in 1967, because he had lost interest in blues and wanted to write original songs like the newer records by the Beatles and the Who. With Nazz he learned songwriting and vocal arranging, determined to equal the Beatles. In 1968 the band signed to Screen Gems Columbia, and Rundgren, who had no production experience, saw the producer rush through the mixes of their first album in a day or two.

A solo career followed, and “We Gotta Get You a Woman” gave him a US top 40 hit in 1970. The double album Something/Anything? in 1972 contained “Hello It’s Me” and “I Saw the Light”, which still get frequent play on classic rock radio. Later came A Wizard, a True Star in 1973, “Can We Still Be Friends” in 1978 and “Bang the Drum All Day” in 1983.

Away from his own records he became one of the first artists to also be a producer, working on Badfinger’s Straight Up, Grand Funk Railroad’s We’re an American Band, the New York Dolls’ debut, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell and XTC’s Skylarking. He also organised the first interactive television concert in 1978, designed the first color graphics tablet in 1980 and made the first interactive album, No World Order, in 1993. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 2021.