
Peak
9
Weeks
20
Score
3,185
Chart Year
1992
The music video opens with the protagonist cutting his hair by the side of a creek. Suddenly the ghost of a woman is seen hovering over the creek. Several older men are seen teasing the protagonist as a child with his mother in the background. Mary is depicted as having features very similar to those of the protagonist's mother. The town's sheriff is shown taking photographs of the couple and following one or both of them in his vehicle. The protagonist goes to see Mary but catches her making love to an unidentified person as the police car arrives. He remembers a time in his childhood when he sees his mother committing adultery. In present time, the protagonist flees the scene, leaving his scarf behind. Mary is at the river, with a look of surprise on her face, then she appears to be lying in water. The next morning several people assist in arresting the male character in connection with her disappearance. While in the interrogation room, the protagonist is shown a white cloth, which the sheriff identifies as the item used to strangle Mary. He then denies that he and Mary were romantically involved. He remembers himself as a child seeing his father leave his mother for another woman. He remembers running out of a burning house. Locals are shown vandalizing the male character's home, breaking its windows and setting fire. He cannot be proved guilty so a sheriff's deputy drops him off at his ruined home. A woman walking by covers her young son's eyes. The protagonist leaves town by hitchhiking. He remembers the girl saying to him: "You know, everyone thinks I should be afraid of you. But I'm not."
Richard Marx is known for songs about relationships, but he will write a story song every now and then. This purely fictional song is set in the small town of Hazard, Nebraska, which is a real place. It tells the story of a man who grows up there and is accused of murder when his girlfriend is found dead by the river. Marx plays the boyfriend/possible killer in the video, which looks like it could be a segment of a TV crime drama. The song and the video were completely different from what we had come to expect from Marx, but it worked; the song became his eighth Top 10 hit in the US. How did Richard Marx choose Hazard, Nebraska for the setting of this song? When we asked him in a 2012 Songfacts interview, he explained: "That's the funniest part of the whole song. Because the song was all written except for those two syllables. So I had the opening two lines of 'My mother came to duh-duh,' and the rest of the song was finished except for the Nebraska line. And then the Nebraska line actually came because the syllables of it and the sound of it sang so well: 'and leave this old Nebraska town.' They sang so well to me that I was like, Okay, I'm sold on Nebraska. This is way before the Internet, so what I did was I called the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and got some very nice woman on the phone and I said, 'here's my fax number.' I was in Los Angeles, and I said, 'Can you fax me a list of every town and city and municipality in the state of Nebraska.' So all of a sudden just page after page after page is coming through my fax machine. And I took the pages, I think there were 16, 17 pages worth of tons of names on each page. And I threw them up in the air and picked a random sheet and literally put my finger on the page, and it was Hazard." In 1992, Marx played a concert in North Platte, Nebraska. The next morning, he and his entourage stopped by Hazard, which had 78 residents at the time. Marx had his picture taken at the post office and by a road sign, and picked up some "Hazard Daze" T-shirts. Only a few of the residents knew he was there, and Marx left after about 30 minutes. >> During a performance of this song at New York's P.C. Richards & Sons Theater in June 2011, Marx recalled thinking the fictional murder suspect was the dumbest lyrical plot he'd ever come up with. However, as it sounded different from many of his other songs so he decided to record a rough demo on cassette in his home studio. As he was singing it, his wife, Dirty Dancing actress Cynthia Rhodes, stopped by and listened. When he had finished, she said, "That's a hit." Marx vehemently disagreed and he confessed to the audience that he included it on Rush Street, "just to prove to her that she was wrong. Isn't that all guys want, just be right once in awhile?" "Four months later," he said, "'Hazard' was #1 in 13 countries. "And I was pissed."
My mother came to Hazard when I was just seven Even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes That boy's not right Three years ago when I came to know Mary First time that someone looked beyond the rumors and the lies And saw the man inside We used to walk down by the river She loved to watch the sun go down We used to walk along the river And dream our way out of this town No one understood what I felt for Mary No one cared until the night she went out walking alone And never came home Man with a badge came knocking next morning Here was I surrounded by a thousand fingers suddenly Pointed right at me I swear I left her by the river I swear I left her safe and sound I need to make it to the river And leave this old Nebraska town I think about my life gone by And how it's done me wrong There's no escape for me this time All of my rescuers are gone, long gone I swear I left her by the river I swear I left her safe and sound (Wooah) I need to make it to the river And leave this old Nebraska town Ooh-hoo, hoo
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feb 15, 1992 | 78 | 48 |
| 2 | Feb 22, 1992 | 57 | 69 |
| 3 | Feb 29, 1992 | 50 | 76 |
| 4 | Mar 7, 1992 | 38 | 88 |
| 5 | Mar 14, 1992 | 33 | 93 |
| 6 | Mar 21, 1992 | 25 | 101 |
| 7 | Mar 28, 1992 | 19 | 107 |
| 8 | Apr 4, 1992 | 15 | 111 |
| 9 | Apr 11, 1992 | 14 | 112 |
| 10 | Apr 18, 1992 | 12 | 114 |
| 11 | Apr 25, 1992 | 9 | 117 |
| 12 | May 2, 1992 | 10 | 116 |
| 13 | May 9, 1992 | 11 | 115 |
| 14 | May 16, 1992 | 14 | 112 |
| 15 | May 23, 1992 | 16 | 110 |
| 16 | May 30, 1992 | 21 | 105 |
| 17 | Jun 6, 1992 | 28 | 98 |
| 18 | Jun 13, 1992 | 33 | 93 |
| 19 | Jun 20, 1992 | 36 | 90 |
| 20 | Jun 27, 1992 | 48 | 78 |