Songoftheday 9/15/12 - Hard days I'm travelling alone for too long...

Dan Fogelberg - "Missing You"
from the album Greatest Hits (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (five weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is by soft-rock king Dan Fogelberg, who went from playing colleges and coffee shops to endearing himself to the hearts of millions of (mostly) women with his sentimental ballads. After being signed he released his first album in 1972, but it wasn't until his sophomore effort Souvenirs two years later that Dan found an audience, with the top-40 hit "Part Of The Plan" hitting the next year. After a couple more relatively successful albums but no major radio hits, Fogelberg struck gold with the wedding-reception staple "Longer" in 1980 from his Phoenix album, which went to #2 on the pop chart, #1 on adult-contemporary (soft-rock) radio, and pegged Fogelberg as the go-to balladeer for the ladies. His followup album, the double-disc The Innocent Age, gave Dan four top-20 pop hits, all ballads, including his second AC #1, "Leader Of The Band", and his tribute to the Kentucky Derby, "Run For The Roses".

In the fall of 1982, Fogelberg releasd his first greatest hits set, and it had all eight of his top-40 pop hits, along with two new songs that would be released as singles. The first, "Missing You", was rather rocking compared to Dan's other hits, though if you delved into his other album tracks, you'd know he could rock out as much as, like, Jackson Browne could rock out. It was written by Fogelberg, like all of his other hits...

"Missing You" didn't match the success of any of the singles from The Innocent Age, but did manage to spent five weeks right under the top-20, as well as going to #6 on the adult-contemporary chart. The Greatest Hits album did better, making it to #15 and selling over three million copies.

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..and here's Dan performing "Missing You" on Letterman in 1987 (after he lost his trademark beard)...

 Dan passed away from prostrate cancer in 2007 at the age of 56.

Up tomorrow: Yes, one of my most hated songs of all time, from the biggest album of all time.