When you come from another planet you simply have to do everything yourself. You have to play the bass, the guitar, the keys, the sax, the drums, you have to sing it, produce it, engineer it, mix it, edit it, cut it, you have to write it, promote it and you have to do your own make up. But that’s nothing for an alien – you even have to bring up other alien children.

Was there nothing Todd Rundgren couldn’t do? Hello It’s Me from the 1972 double album  Something/Anything reached No.5 on the US charts and established Rundgren as a major creative force. Hello It’s Me had originally been recorded by his previous band The Nazz on their first album in 1968. Rundgren credits Jimmy Smith as inspiration for the song but his debt to Laura Nyro seems hard to deny. You can hear her in the song, her style, her way of writing songs – she had become his inspiration.

Note: That’s Eric Clapton’s psychedelic guitar, painted by Dutch art collective, The Fool.

Is That The Four Tops introducing Rundgren on Midnight Special?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_It%27s_Me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Rundgren