Songoftheday 2/13/16 - Thought it wouldn't matter if we didn't stay together and if was over maybe it was for the better...

"I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" - Chicago
from the album Chicago 19 (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from the jazz-rock turned easy-listening band Chicago, who survived the departure of lead singer Peter Cetera for their 18th album. After a shaky start they landed a top-3 pop hit with "Will You Still Love Me", along with a top-20 followup with "If She Would Have Been Faithful". In 1988 they released Chicago 19, even further venturing away from their "rock roots". The first single from the project was the mid-tempo love song "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love". Co-written by song doctor Diane Warren, who helped fellow veteran bands Starship and Heart evolve into hit-making beasts, along with Albert Hammond, who not only had as much success as a songwriter in the 70s and 80s, also had a big hit of his own with "It Never Rains In Southern California".  The marching romance anthem did sport one of the most hideous music videos ever shown on MTV, a planbook on what not to spend special effects money on. Bill Champlin, who has been with the band since 1982, takes the lead vocals, sporting a mass of hair John Waite would be envious of...

"I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" returned Chicago to the top-3 of the American pop chart in August of 1988, while scaling to #5 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") chart. The single also went to #4 in Canada.

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Here's the band performing live in Japan in 1989...

Up tomorrow: A young girl from Down Under fortunately arrives on the pop music scene.