Happy Anniversary: Todd Rundgren, Healing

34 years ago today, Todd Rundgren released an album which sounds a bit a different from most of the efforts that preceded it, but there’s never any question that it’s Todd all over.

Throughout the late ‘60s and the entirety of the ‘70s, Rundgren was about as experimental as a mainstream pop artist could get and still maintain a significant following, trying a little of this and a little of that, rarely settling for the same sound from one album to the next. As such, the fact that Healing sounds different is, in its way, exactly what you’d expect from him. That said, the material finds him getting a bit more reflective than usual.

From a commercial standpoint, the singles from Healing didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but “Time Heals” was a top-20 hit on the Mainstream Rock chart, and “Compassion,” while not quite as successful, was a #48 MR hit. By coincidence, #48 is also what the album hit on the Billboard Top 200, so Rundgren clearly still had a fanbase, but it was less successful than its predecessor – Hermit of Mink Hollow, which made it to #36 – and it started a downward trend which continued for the next few albums.

Looking back, Healing may not rank as a full-fledged classic to those who aren’t full-fledged Rundgren aficionados, but it’s one worth spinning on occasion to recall another side of Todd.