- Pop rock band formed in 1982 from Los Angeles California. The band members were Richard Page (lead vocals, bass guitar, guitars), Steve George (keyboards, saxophone, backing vocals), Steve Farris (guitars, backing vocals) and Pat Mastelotto (drums, backing vocals). All members contributed to songwriting.
- Page and George were high school friends in Phoenix Arizona. After high school, they performed in various bands in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. In 1977, Andy Gibb had his hit single I Just Want To Be Your Everything, and he needed musicians to back him in concerts. Gibb recruited Page and George to perform vocals and keyboards for his touring band, along with other musicians. After Gibb’s tour, his backing group made a demo tape of jazz-fusion material, calling themselves Pages. The group was signed to a recording contract. Three albums were released, none of which were successful.
- In 1981, Pages disbanded and Page and George returned to session work, recording for artists including Donna Summer, REO Speedwagon, Pointer Sisters and Twisted Sister. The following year, they decided to form another band, this time with a new wave, pop rock sound. Farris and Mastelotto were established session musicians in the music industry, and they were asked to join, naming themselves Mr. Mister. The name was inspired by the title of an album by jazz-fusion band Weather Report, named Mr. Gone. Page’s cousin John Lang also contributed to the group as the lyricist for their songs.
- Mr. Mister’s debut album, I Wear the Face, was released in 1984. It barely charted, and its only charting single, Hunters of the Night, peaked at #57 on the Hot 100. Page was offered the lead singer role for Toto, and later, the bassist/vocalist role in Chicago after Peter Cetera left that band, but Page chose to stay with Mr. Mister, despite the disappointing start.
- The decision proved to be correct. With the release of their second album in 1985, Welcome to the Real World had a much different and polished sound, and all three singles from the album were massive hits. Broken Wings and Kyrie both topped the Hot 100 chart, and Is It Love peaked at #8. The album topped the album chart and ultimately was certified platinum. Broken Wings was nominated for a Grammy award and ended 1986 as the #5 Hot 100 song for the year, while Kyrie was the #9 song for the year.
- In 1987, the group released their Go On… album. It was similar in many ways to their second album, except for sales, which were just a fraction of what they had with Real World. One single, Something Real, was used in a episode of the television show Miami Vice, but even with that publicity, it only reached #29 on the Hot 100. Another single, Healing Waters, was only released in Europe. Despite its lack of airplay, it received a Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Performance. By mid-1988, Page and Farris were fighting over creative differences, and Farris left the band.
- They worked on another album using session artists for guitar and completed the album in 1990. They chose material that was more acoustic and progressive. However, the record label went through a management change at that time, and the label refused to release the album, feeling that there was nothing commercial about it. Other labels weren’t interested either, and by the end of 1990, the band split up. Twenty years later, the Pull album finally was released by Page’s own record label. In 2020, an expanded edition of Pull was released with three new songs – these three songs were the first recorded by the Mr. Mister trio of Page, George and Mastelotto in thirty years.
- After the breakup of Mr. Mister in 1990, Page wrote songs for many other artists, including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and Josh Groban. He toured as part of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr band in 2010 – 2013 and 2017. He also released four solo albums, and provided session work for several projects. George worked as a session artist and in 1991 he became Kenny Loggins’ musical director for six years. He then toured with Jewel for five years before retiring. Mastelotto joined King Crimson in 1994 and continues as their drummer today. He also was part of several side projects, with numerous albums all in the art rock/prog rock genre. Farris returned to session work, performing with dozens artists, and then retired from music to focus on his passion of hunting and the outdoors – he has filmed and hosted hundreds of hunting shows for television and cable.
- Will Mr. Mister get back together? Probably not…but…you never know. Here’s the video to Broken Wings. An 80s MTV classic! The song was inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s novel of the same name.