In 1986, American pop rock band Mr. Mister celebrated a second consecutive US No1. hit – with a song that had given singer Richard Page the jitters when it was first written.
In Mr. Mister it was Page, lead vocalist and bassist, who composed most of the music with keyboard player Steve George. But the lyrics were written by someone from outside of the band, yet close to Page – his cousin, John Lang.
In an interview with Rock Candy magazine, Page described the creative dynamic between himself and Lang. “His writing had this edgy kind of weirdness,” Page said, “and I had this light melodic thing going on, so it was an interesting contrast.”
However, on Mr. Mister’s 1985 album Welcome To The Real World, there was one song, Kyrie, in which the themes in Lang’s lyrics troubled Page.
The key phrase in the song – “Kyrie eleison”, translating as “Lord have mercy” – is widely used in Christian prayer, and Page was wary of the connotations when Lang presented him with the lyrics.
Page recalled: “John said he’d had a dream where he remembered singing ‘Kyrie eleison’ as a kid in church. So that was his title for the song.
“I said, ‘No. That will get us pigeonholed as a Christian band, and that's not what we want to do.’ But John said, ‘Let’s try it anyway.’ And once that happened, it just morphed into whatever it was, and there was no going back.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is a kiss of death!’ Because people are going to think that we were proselytising. And it wasn’t like that at all.”
As it turned out, Page’s fears proved unfounded.
On March 1, 1986, Kyrie became Mr. Mister’s second US No.1 – three months after their first with the ballad Broken Wings.
On the same date, the album Welcome To The Real World also made No.1.
It was a triumphant moment for Richard Page and Steve George after years of struggle.
Previously, the pair had made a couple of jazz fusion records in a band named Pages.
“That band was very experimental,” Page said. “We all loved Weather Report, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, all of that great music, so we tried to take some of that into pop music with vocals, but it never really worked with a big commercial audience.”
Mr. Mister had also failed with their debut album I Wear The Face, which limped to No.170 on the US chart in 1984. And in the wake of that failure, Page’s name was linked to two major acts – Toto, who had fired their singer Bobby Kimball, and Chicago, whose frontman Peter Cetera was having hits as a solo artist.
Page revealed to Rock Candy: “I think I was on a shortlist for both bands. More so Toto, because I'd known those guys for years.”
But there was never an offer of an audition, and even if there had been, Page says he would have declined.
“Joining another band to sing songs that have already been hits? I just didn't feel like it was the right thing for me to do,” he said.
Moreover, he was determined to make a go of Mr. Mister.
“I felt like we had some momentum,” he recalled, “so why throw all this away?”
He concluded with a smile: “I have this sort of illogical optimism. And I was so afraid of having to do something normal with my life that I just kept trying and trying…”
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