Album: Chicago 16 (1982)

Charted: 4 1

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• "Everybody needs a little time away"
  I heard her say
  From each other
  Even lovers need a holiday
  Far away from each other
  
  Hold me now
  It's hard for me to say I'm sorry
  I just want you to stay
  
  After all that we've been through
  I will make it up to you
  I promise to
  And after all that's been said and done
  You're just a part of me I can't let go
  
  Couldn't stand to be kept away
  Just for the day
  From your body
  Wouldn't wanna be swept away
  Far away from the one that I love
  
  Hold me now
  It's hard for me to say I'm sorry
  I just want you to know
  Hold me now
  I really wanna tell you I'm sorry
  I could never let you go
  
  After all that we've been through
  I will make it up to you
  I promise to
  And after all that's been said and done
  You're just a part of me I can't let go
  
  After all that we've been through
  I will make it up to you
  I promise to
  
  You're gonna be the lucky one Writer/s: David Walter Foster, Peter P. Cetera
  Publisher: Peermusic Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 19

• Peter Krohn from Melbourne, AustraliaPhilip Clark played this on ABC Radio Melbourne Nightlife recently. A listener texted in to say that it was "listener abuse". Philip tactfully demurred that Chicago are not to everyone's taste. I'm inclined to agree.
• California DreamerListen to Chicago in the 70’s. They lost their identity when guitarist Terry Kath died. David Foster may have wrote some nice songs, but Chicago was never the Chicago I grew up with after Kath. Cetera was a perfect blend with Kath and Lamm, but a little Cetera goes a long way. Best Chicago song ever; 25 or 6 to 4.
• Jim Smith from Fremont, CaliThe lyric reads: "You're gonna gonna be the lucky one" Sounds to me more like "You're NOT gonna be the lucky one" What say you?
• Niels from The NetherlandsRecently some of my country did a worthy rendition (too short and talked through unfortunately) at this Dutch vocal talent show: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_W5SP_cBPII
• Markantney from BiloxeMar 2020,
  Lou, Many feel the same about Mike McDonald and claiming he "Ruined" the Doobies:):). I like both Chicagos but like Cetera's era more, same with the Doobies (McDoobies are a tad better to me:)). Though I like the original Van Halen way more with Roth but the others are OK.
• Lou from PennaI can't believe that someone could blame PETER Cetera for ruining Chicago even after he left , they didn't have to play all those sappy songs that everyone loved, they didn't mind when it was filling their pockets with all that money,times were changing and so was the music, mostly all the bands started playing ballads, PETER Cetera is A very talented musician and no one could could ever come close to his distinctive voice!
• Seventhmist from 7th HeavenI was sorry when the group began "downplaying" its horn section, as I was when ELO dumped its violin player.
• Michael from Alabama@Mus1cman Yes! It was THE summer ballad of 1982. I graduated from high school nine days after this song was released and started college five days before it hit #1. The first time I heard it was in the employee cafeteria at Opryland USA, called the "Great Escape". We got the deformed popsicles, hot dogs, and excess hamburgers from all over the park on the cheap in there with some of the coolest air-conditioning in the place while listening to KDF (who ALWAYS seemed to play the full cut including "Get Away") on our breaks.
  
  WKDF in the mid-1980s was the best formatted rock station I've heard in my entire life. I did a LOT of travelling in the 1990s and early naughts. The only other one that came remotely close was in Raleigh-Durham, NC during the mid-to-late 1990s. It was a virtual clone of mid-80s KDF in Nashville. An FM Album Oriented Rock station was #1 in "The Home of Country Music" every single month for almost the entire decade of the 1980s. Johnny Cash once said in an interview that it was what he listened to while driving his son John Carter to school in the mornings. If it was not too sappy for KDF, that was good enough for me.
• Dave from Wheaton, IlYep, Get Away, needed to be on the radio single, in the 1st place!
• Mus1cman from Barrow, Ak"Terry Kath must have rolled over in his grave when he heard the garbage his band mates made after his untimely death."
  
  Not a bad point but one must remember that he WAS around for "If You Leave Me Now" and such other 'schmaltz' that was going on with the band even before that. Of course very-early, just-out-the-gate Chicago is their respected best along with Kath being the band's most-respected member, the one who gave Chicago their early 'edge' before Cetera either by his own doing or AOR or a little of both monopolized things (I believe Jimi Hendrix himself, before he died, acknowledged Kath's guitar playing and went as far as to say that Terry was better than he was). Just the same, songs such as 'If You Leave Me Now', their 'Hot Streets' offerings (first album w/out Kath) such as 'Alive Again' and 'No Tell Lover' along with 'Hard For Me to Say I'm Sorry' a few years later were really not too bad at all ('Hard Habit to Break', 'You're the Inspriation' and post-Cetera 'Will You Still Love Me' and 'Look Away'...now that's when it REALLY got out of hand). 'Sorry' was indeed a 'summer' song and released as a single at the perfect time in 1982, just before the summer began; and finally peaking on the charts as the summer was officially ending. The entire song embodies the spirit of an entire summer giving you the feel of the summer's beginning at the SONG's beginning and giving you that sad feeling of another summer now gone by the time we hear "you're gonna be the lucky one" with that 'sad' feeling dissolving ONLY if the DJ could POSSIBLY play 'Get Away' which hardly EVER happened when the song was out. A shame, but a decent track nonetheless.
• Art from Mpls, MnI stopped following Chicago after Chicago III came out because it was such a letdown after their first 2 albums though it wasn't that bad really. After that all i knew of them was their incredibly sappy singles on which cetra sang lead on most of them. This kind of music is for 12 year olds. At Billy Champlins website he won't even discuss his time with chicago as if he's ashamed to have been associated with them. I think the only reason he joined the band was because he needed the money since his Sons of Champlin albums , while good, were very unsuccessful commercially. I doubt if anyone who listened to Chicago only after 1978 even knew who the legendary Terry Kath was which is a shame. I never did care for Cetra's voice much but he was ok doing backups when either Kath or Lamb sang and as long as he only sang lead on 2 songs per album it was bearable. Terry Kath must have rolled over in his grave when he heard the garbage his band mates made after his untimely death. These guys sold out close almost as much as elton john and rod stewart did. It's really a shame because these guys were pretty good musicians as their earliest work proves.
• Aimee from Plant City, FlDavid Foster is an amazingly talented man. He wrote some of the best songs ever made.
• Erin from Fargo, NdAt the 2009 "David Foster and Friends" concert, Clay Aiken sang a "Peter Cetera Medley" that contained this song, "You're the Inspiration," and "Glory of Love".
• Adrian from Johor Bahru, MalaysiaChicago's songs topping the charts seem to follow a 6 year pattern. Their first in 1976, If You Leave Me Now was followed by Hard To Say I'm Sorry six years later in 1982 . Then six years later they topped the charts again in 1988 with the Diane Warren composed track, Look Away. It was their first post- Cetera number one or their first number one hit minus Peter Cetera.
• Rick from London, OnKevin, I personally blame everything on David Foster! He is at the nucleus of all things shmaltz and i'm pretty sure he ruined the whole 1980's.
• John from Grand Island, NyIt should be a crime to play this song without the GET AWAY ending. I can't stand it when pop stations cut the song right before the great ending. Still one of the best songs of the 80's. Do I like the 60's-70's Chicago better? Absolutely, but this is one great song especially the ending.
• Don from Marietta, GaThis ballad bozo, as Kevin, in the preceding comment, calls Cetera, cowrote a song lasting 2 weeks, beginning Sept. 11, 2002, @ #1 on the Billboard chart. Pretty good for a "bozo". I'd gladly be a bozo if I could do that. Esp. that upbeat ending, the high paced Get Away. Some FM stations wouldn't play both, but they fit together so well and it was unique. Chicago would often make this their final encore number in concert, and it was a great crowd pleaser.
  
  A URL that tells more about the song:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_to_Say_I'm_Sorry
  
  
• Henry from Pawtucket, RiBill Champlin of Chicago co-wrote After the Love Was Gone.
• Kevin from Reading , PaWhat dreck. Peter Cetera ruined Chicago when he began hogging the spotlight and numbing everyone in to submission with this radio drivel. Yuck. Even when he left the band later, it was too late. The formula had been established and the band carried on with this soulless slop. I find it interesting that Cetera's transofmration from rock/jazz bassist to ballad bozo came with a similar physical transformation: Look at the old pictures and he is kind of beefy and muscular. Once he adopted the soft style, he grew thin and fragile looking. He went wimp, both physically and musically.

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