Why Todd Rundgren Didn’t Care to Play His Egotistical Hit “Hello It’s Me” With Ringo Starr

When Todd Rundgren first released his song “Hello It’s Me” as a B-side with his band Nazz in 1968, it managed to peak at No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100, then reentered the chart at No. 66 months later. After Nazz—which pulled it’s name from the Yardbirds’ 1966 song “The Nazz Are Blue”—disbanded in 1969, Rundgren revisited “Hello It’s Me” on his third solo album Something/Anything? in 1972 and took the more uptempo version to No. 5 on the chart.

“Me, me, me”

Despite it’s chart history, when Rundgren joined Ringo Starr with his All-Starr Band, he performed “Hello It’s Me” a few times but eventually retired it on their tours.

“Originally, Ringo wanted me to do “Hello It’s Me,” and I just felt that the song, in the context of what the rest of the band was playing, didn’t represent the message I wanted to convey,” said Rundgren. “‘Hello It’s Me’ is a kind of a selfish song. It’s me, me, me. It’s all about me. I’m in charge, and all this other stuff.”

Hello, it’s me

I’ve thought about us for a long long time

Maybe I think too much but something’s wrong

There’s something here, doesn’t last too long

Maybe I shouldn’t think of you as mine

Seeing you or seeing anything as much I do you

I take for granted that you’re always there

I take for granted that you just don’t care

Sometimes I can’t help seeing all the way through

It’s important to me

That you know you are free

‘Cause I never want to make you change for me

Think of me

You know that I’d be with you if I could

I’ll come around to see you once in a while

Or if I ever need a reason to smile

And spend the night if you think I should

[RELATED: Todd Rundgren Made the First-Ever Interactive Album with ‘No World Order’]

“Love is the Answer”

Instead of “Hello It’s Me,” Rundgren compromised and added “Love Is the Answer” from his band Utopia’s 1977 album Oops! Wrong Planet to the set.

“I thought a better song, especially for Mr. peace and love—Ringo, himself—would be ‘Love is the Answer,’ and people would know the song, because it was a hit. And they maybe even would just gloss over the fact that it wasn’t a hit for me and think, ‘Oh Yeah,now I remember him singing this song.’ So for me it’s a high point of the evening, and hopefully the audience is getting the message.

Rundgren added, “The song still has meaning to me. I perform it every night with Ringo. Ringo has his ‘three hit rule,’ And I’m taking advantage of a technicality in that ‘Love Is The Answer was a hit, but it wasn’t a hit for me or Utopia. It was a hit [in 1979] for England Dan & John Ford Coley.”

Today, “Hello It’s Me” is still part of Rundgren’s sets on his solo tours.

Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM