He became infatuated with the Velvet Underground and, in 1969, he moved to New York City, lived on the couch of their manager, Steve Sesnick, worked odd jobs, and tried to break in as a professional musician.

Other notable members of the group were keyboard player Jerry Harrison and drummer David Robinson, who later joined Talking Heads and the Cars, respectively.

Among these songs were the seminal "Roadrunner" and "Pablo Picasso", which were eventually released four years later in August 1976 as The Modern Lovers by which time the group had broken up.

By late 1973, Richman wanted to scrap the recorded tracks and start again with a mellower, more lyrical sound, influenced by the laid-back local music he had heard when the band had a residency at the Inverurie Hotel in Bermuda earlier in the year.

His first released recordings appeared on 1975's Beserkley Chartbusters compilation, where he was backed by members of Earth Quake and the Rubinoos.

The new group, now billed as Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, found Richman turning away from the harder, Velvet Underground-influenced electric rock of the original Modern Lovers, toward a gentler sound mixing pop with 1950s rock and roll, and including a bigger emphasis on harmony vocals.

Drummer David Robinson left the group soon thereafter, due to frustration with Richman's quest for lower volume levels, and joined with Ric Ocasek in forming the band the Cars.

After several months as a trio, Richman found a new drummer, D. Sharpe, an avant-garde jazz player on the Boston scene, who later went on to become a member of pianist Carla Bley's band.

Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers was released in 1977 and, just as this record began to climb the charts in Europe, Keranen left the group to attend college.

[7][8] Back in Your Life was released in 1979 under the "Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers" moniker, but only about half the disc featured a backup band.

The touring band was as large as five backup musicians during parts of 1981, when the group had bassist Curly Keranen once again, along with drummer Michael Guardabascio, keyboard player Ken Forfia, vocalist and guitarist Ellie Marshall, and vocalist Beth Harrington for a gig at New York's Bottom Line.

Around the time of his I, Jonathan album (1992), he formed his performance duo with drummer Tommy Larkins (Giant Sand, Yard Trauma, Naked Prey, et al.), who would continue to play and record with Richman for more than 25 years.

Another career boost came with the Farrelly Brothers' 1998 film There's Something About Mary, where Richman and Larkins served as a two-man Greek chorus, commenting on the plot while performing their music within the framed action itself.

He also appeared briefly in a bar scene in a previous Farrelly Brothers film, Kingpin, and performed the song "As We Walk to Fenway Park" for their 2005 comedy, Fever Pitch.

In promotional and concert photos from the early 1970s (such as those reproduced in the album Precise Modern Lovers Order), Richman is frequently seen using a white Fender Stratocaster.

[16] A contemporaneous stage photo used on the cover of the "Egyptian Reggae" single shows Richman playing a sunburst Stratocaster.

Late-1970s studio recordings, such as the Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers album, also featured Richman playing nylon-stringed acoustic guitar.

[17] In the early- and mid-1980s, working with The Modern Lovers, Richman was frequently photographed playing a Harmony Hollywood hollow-body electric guitar.

By the late 1980s, Richman was frequently performing solo concerts using a blonde 1980s Epiphone Regent hollow-body electric guitar.

[18][19] Richman has also been photographed playing a Fender Telecaster and other electric and acoustic guitars, and he does not consider any specific instrument to be essential to his sound.

[21] On his second solo album, Brian Eno made mention of Richman's band in his lyrics, and the Sex Pistols and Joan Jett were among the first artists of note to cover the song "Roadrunner" in the 1970s.

A version of "Pablo Picasso" performed by Burning Sensations was included in the 1984 cult film, Repo Man.

Richman's music has set the tone for many alternative rock bands, such as Violent Femmes, Galaxie 500, They Might Be Giants ("Roadrunner" reportedly inspired John Flansburgh to become a musician), Weezer, Tullycraft, Jens Lekman, Pixies leader Black Francis aka Frank Black (who composed the tribute song "The Man Who Was Too Loud"), Brandon Flowers, Art Brut, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady & Lifter Puller, Mac DeMarco and Nerf Herder who composed a song about him, titled "Jonathan", which appeared on the band's second album How To Meet Girls.

Boston ska-punk band Big D and the Kids Table also covered Richman's song "New England" for their Gypsy Hill EP.