The album's first single, "Don't Mean Nothing", hit number 1 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on July 4, 1987.

In the early 1980s, Richard Marx had started his music career in Los Angeles as a background singer and songwriter for other artists.

Cole had previously produced singer-songwriter Bob Seger's album Like a Rock which Marx stated that it "...sounded great.

[3] Marx wrote the lyrics for all of the songs on his debut, with the exception of "Lonely Heart" and "Remember Manhattan" which were written by Fee Waybill from The Tubes.

Marx's future wife, Cynthia Rhodes, G. W. Bailey, and Fee Waybill appeared in the video for the lead single "Don't Mean Nothing".