Song#: 3897
Date: 05/13/1989
Debut: 84
Peak: 55
Weeks: 12
Genre: Soft Rock
Pop Bits: The band's Chicago 19 album would reach #37 and go platinum thanks to a trio of Pop Top 10 hits including the #10 Pop/#9 AC "You're Not Alone." All three songs were written by outside writers as was their first post-Peter Cetera Top 10, the #3 "Will You Still Love Me." For the fourth single from 19, a tune co-written by one of the band members, Jason Scheff (with John Dixon), would be selected for release. Scheff would also handle lead vocal duties. The ballad didn't catch on as well as the band's three previous hits and it stalled short of the halfway point at Pop while missing the AC Top 10 at #12.
ReduxReview: This power ballad sat just fine alongside their others that became hits, but it just wasn't as memorable. It was hard to keep up with a pro songwriter like Diane Warren who penned two of the previous ballad hits including the #1 "Look Away." Her tunes had choruses that invaded your brain and were hard to shake. Whether you liked the songs or not, you knew them. Scheff and Dixon gave it the ol' college try with this song, but fell short. It was not a bad tune; it just didn't have staying power. After listening it to it several times in a row, an hour later I couldn't remember a bar of it. The production was a bit overwhelming too. High harmonies, crashing guitars, horns, and lots of echo nearly buried the song. By this point in time, I was done with the power ballads continually pushed out by Chicago. Those tunes became their bread 'n' butter at the time so I can understand why they kept sloggin' them out, but I had grown weary of them. The band had one more left in the tank, which thankfully brought a close to this odd era of Chicago.
ReduxRating: 4/10
Trivia: Apparently, the band had intended to record a version of the Otis Redding song "I Can't Turn You Loose" for the album, but ultimately that didn't happen. However, they did perform the song as part of their encores during their supporting tour at the time. Redding wrote the song and his original recording of it was issued out in 1965 as the b-side to "Just One More Day" (#15 R&B/#85 Pop). However, the tune did well enough to make the R&B chart where it topped out at #11. The opening riff of the song would later become famous as the opening theme for The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd) during their concerts and on their 1978 #1 live album Briefcase Full of Blues. In 1968, the psychedelic soul group The Chambers Brothers would record the song and their version would reach #37 on the Pop chart. It was the follow up to their biggest hit, the #11 "Time Has Come Today."
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