Posted on 03/12/2019 10:54:17 AM PDT by simpson96
Chicago - If You Leave Me Now (1976)
"If You Leave Me Now" is the title of a hit ballad by the American rock group Chicago, from their album Chicago X. It was written and sung by bass guitar player Peter Cetera and released as a single on July 31, 1976.
The single topped the US charts on October 23, 1976, and stayed there for two weeks, making it the first number one hit for the group as well as hitting number one on the Easy Listening charts. "If You Leave Me Now" was also Chicago's biggest hit internationally, topping the charts in other countries such as the UK, Australia, Ireland, Canada, and Netherlands. In the UK it maintained the number one position for three weeks. It was one of only five "non-disco" songs to make it to number one in the US in a nine-month period of 1976. According to writer Zachary Houle of PopMatters, "The song was so pervasive on radio upon its release that, reportedly, those tuning in in New York could hear the song playing on four different stations, each with varying formats, simultaneously."
The song won Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) (strings) for arranger Jimmie Haskell and producer James William Guercio and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus, the first Grammy Award won by the group. It also received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
What a SHAME, such a good song has to make you suffer like that :)
You’re only 6 years older than me.
I had the privilege at 12 years old of knowing that older looking guy seemed to really care about America and that I would be safe with Him in the Oval Office.
Was in doctors office when he got shot. Nurse came in and mentioned it.
ROFLMAO!!!!!
I hate to sound like a fruit but I like “Look Away” and “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, the later songs with whomever was singing that week lol
But 25 or 6 is my favorite song by them.
Love the guitar.
Plus it’s about an insane drug trip.
And then, I thought that maybe what I needed to do was a fusion of three groups instead of two.
I would combine Chicago, The Captain And Tenille And America.
This produced my song,
“If You Leave Me Now With Muskrat Love On Ventura Highway”
Here is a little bit of that song.
“If you leave me now
Muskrat Susie and Muskrat Sam doing the jitterbug On Ventura Highway
And they wriggle until the RV takes away the biggest part.”
Thought I hit platinum with that one.
I'll throw in Paul Anka there...
If You Leave Me Now With Muskrat Love On Ventura Highway While You're Having My Baby.
...as did Color my world..
hated that song as a kid.....hate it more, now.
Even better!
If You Leave Me Now With Muskrat Love On Ventura Highway While You’re Having My Baby And Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting
A great group in a league of their own. The electric guitar playing of Terry Kath, the big guy in the picture, left rear, has to be seen to believe that anyone could shred like that and sing just like Ray Charles. He died way too young.
I just saw what’s left of them, and very creditable replacements, last month; they were exciting and flawless.
Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve2rcdWGNXE&index=142&list=PL6jcoMgLHr56I3ONTXehBi4Gql1tl0pyn&t=0s
Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fTmtfIbEE&list=PL6jcoMgLHr56I3ONTXehBi4Gql1tl0pyn&index=145&t=0s
Part 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHngS_X_Oy0&index=141&list=PL6jcoMgLHr56I3ONTXehBi4Gql1tl0pyn&t=0s
:)
Thanks for those links.
Ventura Highway is good.
My story about this song.
First off, I can never remember which soft-rock Chicago song it was, as they all sort of meld together in my head. But based on the date I know it was this one.
Two years out of HS. Summer of 76. Quit my job at the local grocery store as I was going to start college that fall. Two brother and I went on a 2 week drive out west in our 65 mustang. Oregon and California. Some nights camped out, some in Motel 6’s.
Somewhere in CA camping out in the evening I remember the local radio station saying this was the most requested new release. I had not heard it before.
Got back. Went my Freshman year. Driving back home after finishing finals and heard it on the way. Thought it weird a song could ‘last’ 9 months on the radio.
Yep.
High grade blacktop there.
Ventura Hwy was hippie poetry at its epitome. Alligator lizards!
Agreed. To me sake thing happened to the Commodores with Lionel and Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonnel.
In the air!
Where else?
Loved the band in high school and college. Chicago was the first concert I went to at 15. I was into the horns. Earth Wind and Fire to.
Top 40 stations would typically play about 70% "heavy rotation" songs (usually songs that were rising in the Billboard Hot 100 chart) and then 20% would be for what they called "recurrents", songs that either exited or were falling from the chart but were still getting requested. The remaining 10% were for "oldies" or as a typical DJ would say, a "blast from the past" - such as a Rolling Stones or Beach Boys track.
If a song went to or near the top, it would take months to dislodge it from the playlist as it would spend up to six months in heavy rotation and maybe another 3-6 months in the recurrent playlist. For instance, I think I heard "Love Will Keep Us Together" (1975) pretty much every day for a year on my Top 40 station, which was WRKO-AM out of Boston. Ditto with "Listen to What The Man Said" by Wings.
I did not even discover FM until 1977. Until then, it was Top 40 on WRKO all the time.
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