He is best remembered for helping to implement a style that he calls ‘horizontal music with a vertical connection’: songs that may be informed by a spiritual orientation but are not overtly about spiritual things.
– Kenny Marks: Remembering the CCM star of the ’80s and ’90s
Christian Music singer Kenny Marx who featured here only a month ago with Running on Love has returned with the title track from his 1993 ‘greatest hits collection’ album Absolutely, Positively Friends. I like to sometimes go back to listening to the music I grew up and played a hundred times. A friend of mine ‘Eric’ lent me his cassette tapes of Kenny in school. I found the songs catchy and inspiring. I thought they had plenty of feeling and great meanings. Kenny’s voice is made in the Bryan Adams / Journey pathos style. His songs could be considered too sanguine, sentimental and ‘rote by numbers’ by modern tastes and a cynical world, but I won’t shy away from the music which was an integral part of forming my identity and place in the world. So that’s that, for better or worse.
On 31st October 2008 Kenny Marks died of a heart attack at 67 years of age. Although his name may not be known to a younger generation of Christian music aficionados but he was (as purported in the references below), at his height in the ’80s and ’90s; a true CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) star with a string of US Christian radio hits. Kenny continued to release albums up ’til 1995, exploring a more melodic ballad driven sound. It’s a shame that over the last couple of generations his music which once shone so bright has faded into such obscurity. His lyrics to today’s featured track Absolutely, Positively Friends cannot even be found, nor can information about the record.
Kenny said in an interview, “Music is one of the best ways to reach people. I love the passion in rock and want to use it for good. I use this powerful art form to communicate hope to people right where they are. I want my lyrics to touch hearts. Years of tours and travels all over the world have shaped my music, but I definitely retain a Christian perspective.”
– Kenny Marks: Remembering the CCM star of the ’80s and ’90s
References:
1. Kenny Marks – Wikipedia
2. Kenny Marks Dies at 67 – GMA
3. Kenny Marks: Remembering the CCM star of the ’80s and ’90s – Cross Rhythms
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
He sounds exactly like Bryan Adams Matt! Great album cover!
Yes he does sound like him. Yeh, the album cover is pretty cool.
I love me a bit of Kenny music. Just finished hearing it again. I haven’t grown tired of his music since I was a young teen.