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Hello It's Me

"Hello It's Me"
Helloitsme rundgren.jpg
Cover of the 1974 France single
Single by Todd Rundgren
from the album Something/Anything?
B-side "Cold Morning Light"
Released December 1972
Format 7"
Recorded 1971
Genre
Length 3:31 (single)
4:42 (album)
Label Bearsville
Writer(s) Todd Rundgren
Producer(s) Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren singles chronology
"Couldn't I Just Tell You"
(1972)
"Hello It's Me"
(1972)
"A Dream Goes On Forever"
(1974)
"Hello It's Me"
Nazz - Hello It's Me.jpg
Cover of the 1969 UK single
Single by Nazz
from the album Nazz
A-side "Open My Eyes" (1968)
B-side "Crowded" (1969)
Released 1968
Format 7"
Recorded April 1968 (1968-04)
Genre Pop rock
Length 3:57
Label SGC Records
Writer(s) Todd Rundgren
Producer(s) Michael Friedman
Nazz
Nazz singles chronology
"Open My Eyes"
(1968)
"Hello It's Me"
(1969)
"Not Wrong Long"
(1969)

"Hello It's Me" is a song composed, recorded, and performed by Todd Rundgren, released in late 1972, that reached #5 on the Billboard charts.

Hello It's Me was the first original song by Todd Rundgren. It was first recorded in 1968 by Rundgren's band Nazz and was included on their self-titled debut album. Although released as the B-side of the group's debut single "Open My Eyes" it was picked up in preference to the A-side by Boston radio station WMEX, where it rose to #1, and was subsequently picked up by other stations. It first charted in 1968 at #66 on the U.S. charts.

Rundgren's songs in this early phase of his career were heavily influenced by the work of Laura Nyro, but in a 2005 interview he revealed that the basic structure of the song was adapted from the introduction of a Jimmy Smith recording:

...the main influence for Hello It's Me was an eight bar intro that Jimmy Smith played on a recording of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.  He had this whole sort of block chord thing that he did to set up the intro of the song.  I tried to capture those changes, and those changes became what are the changes underneath Hello It's Me.  I then had to come up with melody and words, but the changes are actually almost lifted literally from something that was, from Jimmy Smith's standpoint, a throwaway.

Rundgren recorded an uptempo version of Hello It's Me on his 1972 solo album Something/Anything?. Although a remake of the original, this new version became widely popular and has since become a staple of the classic rock genre. An edit of this version was released as a single in 1973 and became Rundgren's only Top Ten pop hit, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.


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