Songoftheday 6/18/12 - Everybody needs a little time away, I heard her say...

Chicago - "Hard To Say I'm Sorry"

from the album Chicago 16 (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 18

Today's song of the day is by veteran pop-rock act Chicago, and their comeback single "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". It marked the debut of Chicago version 2.0, where they went from a jazz-fusion rock band (with some beta testing in soft-rock into a full-fledged adult-contemporary franchise.

Let me say first of all that as a young child Chicago was my favorite rock group. I guess the prominent use of horns and oblique chord patterns got to me. They started out as the Chicago Transit Authority (after the EL/Subway system there) in 1968 (changing their name from the "Big Thing"). After the actual city Authority threatened to sue, the group shortened it to Chicago, which made better sense anyway. With vocals balanced out by gruff-toned Terry Kath and angelic-tenored Peter Cetera, along with the straightforward delivery of Robert Lamm, the varied output of the band made them even more accessible and able to deliver a truckload of hits. Their first charting hit from their debut, "Question 67 & 68" was at first a minor hit,  but it was their sophomore album, Chicago II (of course), that would be their breakthrough, with two signature songs, Kath-led "Make Me Smile" and Cetera-led "25 or 6 to 4". The band then ruled the 70s, hitting the pop top-10 in the US eleven more times, and scored a #1 single with "If You Leave Me Now" in 1976. And they were even bigger as an albums act, with five of their numerically-titled albums going to #1.

However, as the 70s waned, Chicago's success on the charts diminished as well. Terry Kath died from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1978, and the group in that form had a tough time recovering from that. In fact their first album released after Kath's death, the sole non-numeric Hot Streets, was their first since their debut record to miss the top-10 and also not produce a top-10 single, the following Chicago 13 missed the top-20 and couldn't score a top 40 hit, and Chicago XIV stalled under the album top-40 and only had a minor hit. The band was dropped by their label (thanks for all the sales, buh-bye!) and it looked like that was it for Chicago.

But then came David Foster.

Foster, formerly a musician in the 70's group Skylark, was coming into his own as a producer, and with Chicago picked up by Full Moon/Warner Brothers Records, Chicago version 2.0 was born. Singer Bill Champlin was recruited to provide the counterpoint vocal presence to Cetera's tenor, and while much more muted in edge than Kath's, fit the soft-rock music genre perfectly. Their first LP on the new label, Chicago 16, was released in the summer of '82, and the first single plucked from it was the ballad "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". Edited from the album version which segued into the brassy jam "Get Away", the song was featured in the movie Summer Lovers, and sung by Cetera along with the band and members of Toto backing them up in the studio.

The song not only reversed their fortunes, becoming their first top-10 hit in five years, but became their second #1 single for two weeks, succeeding and then being replaced by Steve Miller's "Abracadabra". The corresponding album also made it to the top-10, and set the stage for their even-more-successful followup.

Fourteen years later, the song would be remade by Boyz II Men clones Az Yet, with now former Chicago member Peter Cetera guesting on the track and David Foster remixing the Babyface production, which returned the song to the US pop top-10.

Irish boy-band Westlife covered the song in 2007....

And in 2009, Trance act Aquagen from Germany sampled the track in 2009 for their dance version

And finally, back to Chicago, live in 1982 with "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" with tag coda "Get Away"...

Up tomorrow: one more time into the bleach and onto the beach for a iconic new-wave/punk group.