His biggest hit actually started as a love letter to his wife, Cynthia, who, at that time, he had been dating for two years. The couple was forced apart by their work—he was on a world tour, she was filming a movie in Africa—for three months. "This was before Skype, before email," he told Radio.com. "This is when long distance calls cost 44 dollars a minute."

Marx sat down one day to write away his pain and 17 minutes later he had "Right Here Waiting." He sent the cassette ("That's how long ago 1988 was," he joked) and never planned to sing the song again.

Unfortunately, Cynthia started playing it for their friends and everyone started asking, "When are you going to record this?" But Marx wasn't interested in letting other people hear his feelings, comparing the song to a love letter in the newspaper.