Dick Marx

• Died: 1997
• Active: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Piano

Biography

Jazz pianist/arranger/composer Dick Marx's credits include creating some of the most enduring advertising jingles of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. They include Ken-L-Ration's "My dog is bigger than your dog," Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum's "Double your pleasure, double your fun," Kellogg's Raisin Bran's "There's two scoops of raisins in every package of," and Dial Soap's "Aren't you glad you use Dial." After moving to Los Angeles in 1986, Marx began scoring movie (A League of Their Own, Edwards and Hunt) and television (Fudge) soundtracks and doing string and horn arrangements for his son Richard Marx and other pop artists (Joe Cocker, Yoshiki, among others).

Dick Marx graduated from Sullivan High School whose alumni includes jingle composer Marty Rubenstein. Marx learned piano as a child. He began performing in Chicago-area nightclubs. Forming Dick Marx and Associates, he gathered a stable of talent composers and jingle writers. His wife Ruth sang on many of his jingles while Richard contributed vocals to the children's commercials. At age 73, Dick Marx died in August 1997 in Highland Park Hospital in Highland Park, IL, from injuries he'd sustained in an auto accident in Las Vegas. Dick Marx-related releases are The Complete Gershwin Songbooks; Joe Cocker's Have a Little Faith, Across From Midnight, America's Favorite Song Butchers: The Weird World of Homer & Jethro, Richard Marx Repeat Offender, Richard Marx Straight Talk, Complete Jerome Kern Songbooks, Lucy Reed The Singing Reed, and Complete Helen Merrill on Mercury (1954-1958). ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide