Hello It's Me

1973

Todd Rundgren

This was Something/Anything's sleeper hit...not only was it a sleeper hit, but it blew the doors off of 'I Saw The Light', the song that was supposed to be the album's biggest hit. Todd Rundgren led 'Hello It's Me' off with another piano heavy intro that became a constant presence on Top 40 stations through-out the land.

He also slowed it down a good bit in comparison to, say, 'I Saw The Light and 'We Gotta Get You A Woman, and much of his other music. Not in comparison to the original version of the song, however, which wasn't exactly a hit, sleeper or otherwise.

Huh??' you ask. 'What do you mean 'Original Version??”

Hello I's Me was actually Todd Rundgren's first original song, written several years pre-Something/Anything, back when he was a member of a band called 'The Nazz'. They recorded it as an almost dirge-like ballad and released it in 1968 as the 'B' side of that group's debut single ( 'Open My Eyes') . It got airplay when it was played rather than the A-side by a DJ on Boston station WMEX who heard it and liked it bigtime. It became WMEX's most requested song, but...it didn't do so hot in the rest of the country. Oh. It cracked The Hot 100...but only made it to #66....so after a short run on big-number end of the Hot 100, it sort of ended up in the file-drawer so to speak, until 1972 and its rebirth for 'Something/Anything.' Well, actually until well over a year after 'Something/Anything' was released.

That's right...it kind of languished for over a year...Something /Anything was released in February of 1972, radio stations didn't start playing the single until late Summer or fall of 1973, and it didn't debut on the Hot 100 until the sixth of October of that same year...barely cracking the Hot 100 at #97 on it's debut date. Once it did make it to the Hot 100, it took 12 weeks to peak at #5 just eight days before Christmas. It'd hang around The Hot 100 for another 8 weeks for a total run of twenty weeks.

Todd Rundgren went 'up tempo with 'Hello It's Me' when he decided to rerecord it for 'Something/Anything', and while it's definitely lighter and more , well, 'pop' than the dirge-like original, it's still one of his slower songs, especially compared to, say, 'We Gotta Get You A Woman' and 'Bang The Drum All Day'. It's about a telephone call made to a girl by the guy who's telling her that he's ending their relationship for her own good, and that he only asks that she remember him well (And let him sleep over occasionally). So it has a sort of introspective feel to it, as if the guy's examining his own thoughts about their relationship even as he breaks up with her. It's also one of those songs that everyone can identify with, because everyone's had one of those relationships. This common thread's what drove it's popularity and drove it to the # 5 spot on The Hot 100, again,almost two years after the album was released.

The song's late blooming was especially awkward for Rundgren on a couple of occasions when he was obligated to perform it...after all it was his biggest hit...because his style and direction had changed completely at that point. But perform it he did., even if it was far removed form his songwriting and singing style by then.

When it did finally get released that Fall of '73, it was another song that became a constant presence on WLEE, and that piano intro and the song's melody and lyrics had a way of sticking in your head when you heard it while on the way to school and re-emerging a couple of hours later to have you mouthing 'Hello, it's Me silently to the music in your head as you tried to figure out just what 'X' did equal.

Hello It's Me became the song that Todd Rundgren is most identified with, even today, though he's moved on from that style of music almost immediately after Something/Anything and it's pair of hit singles was released. He left the love songs behind after that album, and wrote songs about deeper subjects.

And we, The Seventies Kids, still remember Todd Rundgren's late-blooming...and biggest...hit fondly. It's one of those songs that hearing the intro to can transport you back to a time when kicking your biggest rivals' ass in football, getting a date for the weekend, and hating Geometry Proofs were the biggest concerns you had.. You'll hear this one off and on on the Oldies stations...it'll go a month or two in fairly constant rotation, then disappear for awhile, it seems. But it always comes back. And this is a good thing!

So Enjoy...Todd Rundgren's late-blooming hit,Hello It's Me. An ya know ya sang along with it!.

And as a bonus...The original version of 'Hello It's Me' by Todd Rundgren and The Nazz