POST RESOLVED ; MX wasn't updating parts of the query on the page when it was being edited through the recordset panel. see below if interested.
No matter how many times I've reviewed my SELECT I keep getting "please provide names for all parameters. This is macromedia MX.
In fact, I can run my query directly in phpmyadmin which returns results fine, but MX won't let me save this as a recordset to the page. Anyone ever run into this?