First off, no, this isn’t the Kansas tune. It predates it by six years.
Fifty years ago this month, then 23-year-old Todd Rundgren released what’s widely regarded as his magnum opus, the double LP “Something/Anything?” For the first three sides of the album Rundgren, already an experienced producer, not only wrote and sang all the songs, he played all the instruments too. The songs demonstrated his versatility extended to his songwriting, which ranged from the light pop of “I Saw the Light” to the proto-metal of “Little Red Lights” while kick-starting power pop with “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” along the way.
With enough material for three sides in the can, Rundgren sped up his process by hiring musicians for live-in-studio session on the fourth. The musicians varied according to where Rundgren recorded — he started in Los Angeles but after an earthquake shifted to New York.
Much of the material is juvenile — “Piss Aaron” is about high school oddballs, “You Left Me Sore” is a sweet pop confection about what was then known as venereal disease, and “Slut” holds up as poorly as you’d expect (he was 23, give him a break). But side 4 also included two songs Rundgren didn’t write — “Money (That’s What I Want)” and this lovely soul-influenced ballad by the keyboard player Rundgren recruited back East, Mark “Moogy” Klingman, who went on to play in the soon to be formed Rundgren-led band Utopia. Other players on the tune include Rick Derringer on guitar and the Brecker Brothers, Mark and Randy, on horns, which is why it sounds like something the original Blood, Sweat and Tears might have covered.
It has been covered most notably by Guns N’ Roses around the time Axl Rose cited “Something/Anything?” as his favorite album.
Klingman recorded the song himself for a 1999 solo album of his compositions, some of which were recorded by various artists he played with, including Bette Midler and Buzzy Linhart.
