Title: Todd Rundgren - Something / Anything?
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1972, Power Pop, Art Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania 9/26
Matrix #: 2BX 2066
Condition: VG+ (LM) | Members: Todd R (48' - ) | Producer: Todd Rundgren
Cultural Facts:

1. One-Man Factory: Rundgren made roughly three-quarters of this sprawling double album almost completely alone, singing the parts, playing the instruments, engineering and producing himself. In the pre-digital era that meant physically running between the tape machine and the instrument he was about to record, building elaborate songs one overdub at a time.
2. Chemical Work Schedule: Rundgren later said he was taking Ritalin while making Something / Anything?, using the stimulant during the obsessive solo recording process. The exhausting approach produced enough material for a double LP and helped establish his reputation as the rare artist who could function as songwriter, musician, engineer and producer at the same time.
3. Teenage Song Comes Back: "Hello It's Me" was one of the first songs Rundgren ever wrote and had already been recorded by his Philadelphia-area band Nazz in the late 1960s. Instead of leaving the old song behind, he rebuilt it for Something / Anything? with a slower, looser arrangement, and that second version became his biggest solo hit.