Songfacts®:

• Loggins was going through a painful period of estrangement from his son when he wrote this with fellow soft-rocker Richard Marx. The lyrics find him frustrated by the rift but hopeful for a reconciliation ("I trust that someday, you'll no longer be the one that got away"). In an interview with Pop Dose, Marx recalled, "Kenny was at my house hanging out for a couple of days and I woke up with this melody in my head and I played it for him and he said, 'Oh my God, it's beautiful - let's work on it.' We started to write it and he said, 'You know, I really want to write this about Cody.' Once we knew what the song was about, it was such a heart wrenching experience... I've never experienced anything like this, where it was like a therapy session all day, pulling the truth out of the lyrics."
• Loggins and his son repaired their relationship after he played him the song. Cody, who also inspired "Cody's Song" from the 1991 album Leap of Faith, is the second of three children from Loggins' first marriage.
• It's About Time is Loggins' 12th solo album. He released it through his own label, All The Best, after he was dropped by Columbia Records. The singer, who had been with the label for 30 years, lamented, "They didn't even send me a thank you letter."
• In his song "The Real Thing," from his 1991 post-divorce album, Leap Of Faith, Loggins assured his children he was doing them a favor by divorcing their mother because he wanted to show them what real love was via a healthy relationship. Cody didn't see it that way and blamed his dad for breaking up their home. With this track, Loggins wanted to show the other side of the coin. "I saw that I had a obligation to write a song that may be perceived as the other side (of 'The Real Thing') but which is really a step forward," he told Honolulu's Star-Bulletin. "Again, it's an example of a song cutting right to the bone (and being) incredibly personal and changing lives. Parents have been showing children that song and saying, 'This is what I wanted to say to you,' and children have told me that they wish they could talk about that with their parents."