A Wizard, a True Star is the fourth studio album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released on March 2, 1973, by Bearsville Records.

He envisioned it as a hallucinogenic-inspired "flight plan" with all the tracks segueing seamlessly into each other, starting with a "chaotic" mood and ending with a medley of his favorite soul songs.

Upon release, A Wizard, a True Star received widespread critical acclaim, but sold poorly, reaching number 86 on the U.S. charts.

[5] He explained, "It wasn't like I suddenly threw away everything that I was doing before and decided that I was going to play the music of my mind", rather, the experiences allowed him "to actively put some of [my songwriting habits] away and to absorb new ideas and to also hear the final product in a different way.

"[7] Rundgren and keyboardist Moogy Klingman established a professional recording studio, Secret Sound, to accommodate the Wizard sessions.

[9] Rundgren provided a host of instruments and equipment, including vibraphones, organs, keyboards, Fairchild equalizers, and a Stephens 16-track tape recorder.

"[11] He said a typical session involved Rundgren arriving with a piece of music, written on piano or guitar and often untitled, which the band would learn by ear and create charts for if necessary.

"[12] Wizard was one of the longest single-disc LPs ever cut,[13] and its 55:56 playing time stretched the technical limits of how much music could fit on a vinyl record.

"[16] Although he denied that the record should be considered a concept album,[23] Wizard was envisioned as a "flight plan" with all the tracks segueing seamlessly into each other, starting with a "chaotic" mood and ending with a medley of his favorite soul songs.

"[9] Musicologist Daniel Harrison likened Wizard to late 1960s Beach Boys work such as Smiley Smile, specifically in that the albums shared musical aspects such as "abrupt transitions, mixture of various pop styles, and unusual production effects.

"[27] Harrison added that few artists in this period chose to emulate the Beach Boys' experiments due to the band's poor commercial standing.

[27] However, Rundgren said that adapting his sound to meet commercial expectations was never an issue for him since he already made "so much money from production", a rare luxury for an artist.

[6]Also included within the die-cut album cover was a poem by Rundgren's friend Patti Smith, "Star Fever", written on an enlarged Band-Aid facsimile.

Bearsville executive Paul Fishkin spoke about the label's "bad luck with timing" and explained "Todd was off on his psychedelic adventure, and then a year later 'Hello' becomes a hit.

[34] As the album was scheduled for release, he prepared a technologically ambitious stage show with the newly formed group,[35] his first official band since the Nazz.

Once Rundgren was finished with other production duties, he began formulating plans for an improved configuration of Utopia, but first returned to Secret Sound to record the more synthesizer-heavy double album Todd, which was more material drawing on his hallucinogenic experiences.

"[43] NME's Nick Kent wrote that it was "a great record", praising its "versatility", and ended his review by saying it was "already destined to be one of my ten best-dressed of '73, and you deserve a kick in the pants if you don't purchase it.

"[44] Ron Ross of Phonograph Record deemed "Zen Archer" to be "Todd's most gorgeous single achievement yet" and said that the album "should stand as a final testament to the powerful musical and emotional emancipations of the 60s.

[32] Billboard wrote: "Certainly an unusual LP from the singer/writer/producer, filled with varying vocal styles, strange sounds courtesy of Moogs and other exotic instruments, and fine songs from Rundgren and others.

[29] Somewhat less favorably, Creem's Robert Christgau deemed Rundgren "a minor songwriter with major woman problems who's good with the board and has a sense of humor".

[47] Rolling Stone's James Isaacs gave a mixed review of the album, calling it the artist's "most experimental, and annoying, effort to date ...

On the other hand, side two's restraint, its brimming good humor and its ambience of innocence is irresistible, and helps save A Wizard, A True Star from total disaster.

"[48] Among retrospective assessments of Wizard, music journalist Barney Hoskyns called the record "the greatest album of all time ... a dizzying, intoxicating rollercoaster ride of emotions and genre mutations [that] still sounds more bravely futuristic than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in the 21st Century.

"[49][nb 4] In MusicHound Rock (1996), Christopher Scapelliti described Wizard as "a fascinating sonic collage that skews his pop-star image 180 degrees".

[39] Evan Minsker of Pitchfork called it "a trippy, constantly moving album that's as psychedelically detailed as it is (intentionally) creepy—not unlike the Sparks record [Rundgren] had recently helmed.

But … Trent Reznor and other artists have cited that as being a major influence on them and so I have a special pride for what essentially was my act of tyranny after having achieved commercial success.

[6] According to Stanley, the album's effervescent sound "predicted Prince in its playful R&B fizz, and a swathe of twenty-first-century electropop acts from the Avalanches to Hot Chip".

[50] In 2018, Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky noted that the "fingerprints" of Wizard remain "evident on bedroom auteurs to this day, from Ariel Pink to Frank Ocean, who sampled its synths on 2016's Blonde.

"[2] Jellyfish and Imperial Drag co-founder Roger Joseph Manning Jr. praised the record for its unusual sound: "Stuff is distorting.