About
Also known as: Runt, TR-i
Todd Rundgren grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and by his early twenties had already cycled through a blues group, a psychedelic rock band called Nazz, and a solo project under the name Runt. The double album Something/Anything? in 1972 was a turning point, with Rundgren playing nearly every instrument himself and scoring hits with "I Saw the Light" and a reworked "Hello It's Me". That record cemented his reputation as a studio obsessive in the best possible sense. From 1973 onward he leaned hard into progressive rock and formed Utopia, a band he kept running in various lineups until 1986, all while continuing to release solo material. His 1976 album Faithful showed his range nicely: one side given over to meticulous note for note recreations of classic tracks from 1966, the other filled with originals that earned real praise from critics at the time. Outside his own recordings, he built a parallel career as a producer, working with acts as varied as Meat Loaf, XTC, Patti Smith and Bad Religion.
