Musical Monday - Hard to Say I'm Sorry by Chicago

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: September 11, 1982 through September 18, 1982.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

The evolution of Chicago from a pretty kick-ass jazz-fusion band in the late 1960s and early 1970s to a purveyor of tepid easy listening music in the early 1980s will always be perplexing to me. I kind of suspect that the reason Chicago lost its edge was the 1978 death of guitarist Terry Kath, but that is probably too simplistic an answer. It is just hard to square the band that made a song like 25 or 6 to 4 with the band who made, well, this. The only other band I can think of that went through a similar change is the Doobie Brothers, who went from a great bar band performing stuff like China Grove and Long Train Runnin' to transforming into discount Steely Dan with bonus whining and churning out stuff like What a Fool Believes.

This song pretty much set the tone for Chicago for the next several years. Every now and then, Chicago would hit the charts again with a treacly but otherwise entirely bland ballad. In the mid-1980s, Peter Cetera ventured out for a solo career, and produced more treacly but otherwise entirely bland ballads. How the mighty had fallen.

Previous Musical Monday: Abracadabra by the Steve Miller Band

Subsequent Musical Monday: Jack and Diane by John Cougar

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Abracadabra by the Steve Miller Band

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Jack and Diane by John Cougar

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Chicago     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home