Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 2937 Date: 11/15/1986
Debut: 85
Peak: 3
Weeks: 23
Genre: Soft Rock, Adult Contemporary
Pop Bits: Chicago's first album after losing co-founder Peter Cetera, Chicago 18, did not get off to a good start. Its first single, a remake of the band's own 1970 hit "25 or 6 to 4," stalled at a minor #48. They needed something to turn the album around and so they went with this track that was co-written by their producer, hitmaker David Foster. The power ballad was more in line with what the band had been putting out most of the decade and that familiarity reignited interest in the band and the song took off to become their sixteenth Pop Top 10 hit. It would also get to #2 on the AC chart. The tune's success finally sparked sales of the album and it would reach #35 and go gold by the end of the year. It was a fortunate turnaround for an album that was on the brink of being a major disappointment.
ReduxReview: Okay, so I don't dislike this song. It's actually pretty good. The lyrics are sappy, but the music is solid as is Foster's production. However, by this point in time I was just tired of the whole Chicago/Foster thing. Their formula was just getting boring. To top it off, they hired a new singer (Jason Scheff) that Foster had told to sing like Peter Cetera. So there was nothing new or original here. Yet it worked for them as far as this hit, so that was good for them. I just ended up tuning out and ignoring the band.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: This song was written by David Foster, Tom Keane, and Richard Baskin. Baskin was a composer whose career was escalated when he wrote songs for the 1975 Robert Altman film Nashville. That led to him being the musical guest on a second season episode of Saturday Night Live. (It also helped that his sister was the photographer who supplied the stills used during the show's opening theme.) Sissy Spacek was the guest host and she and Baskin did a duet on the song "One, I Love You," a tune that was originally performed in Nashville by Henry Gibson and Ronee Blakely. For his second number, Baskin did a solo piece titled "City of One-Night Stands." Baskin would later produce two tracks on Barbra Streisand's Grammy-winning The Broadway Album. If his last name is familiar, it should be. He is the son of the man who co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shops.
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This is actually much better in the full album version than in the abbreviated single. Framing arpeggios (cut off the beginning and end in the single). It also has a full vocal close and cadence with no fade out.
ReplyDeleteYes the bookend parts made the song more complete, but it wasn't something that would have changed my assessment. That arrangement technique was something David Foster started with the band way back in '82.
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