"Chances Are" is a

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

song with music by Robert Allen and lyrics by

Al Stillman Al Stillman ''(né'' Albert Irving Silverman; 26 June 1901 Manhattan, New York – 17 February 1979 Manhattan, New York) was an American lyricist. Biography Stillman was born to Jewish parents Herman Silverman and Gertrude Rubin ''(maiden).'' He a ...

. It was published in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

Chart performance

The song was one of many compositions by the Stillman-Allen team that were chart hits in the 1950s. It was listed on ''Billboard''s "Most Played by Jockeys" survey for Johnny Mathis, charting in 1957, and was inducted in the

Grammy Hall of Fame Award The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...

in 1998. The song reached No. 4 on ''Billboard''s Best Sellers in Stores survey, along with its flip "

The Twelfth of Never "The Twelfth of Never" is a popular song written in 1956 and first recorded by Johnny Mathis the following year. The title is a popular expression, which is used as the date of a future occurrence that will never come to pass. In the case of t ...

", which Mathis initially disliked. The song, released on both 45 RPM and 78 RPM formats, was also included on the 1958 Mathis compilation '' Johnny's Greatest Hits''. The album was certified a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

on June 5, 1959. In Canada, the song reached number 3 on the

CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart was a ranking of top 30 (and, until August 1968, the top 50) songs on Toronto, Ontario radio station CHUM AM, from 1957 to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in the world produced by an individual radio station. On Janua ...

Later recordings

*Mathis re-recorded the song in 1996 as a duet with Liza Minnelli for her album '' Gently''.

Pop culture references

* A portion of this song can be heard in ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...

''.

References

Johnny Mathis songs 1957 songs 1957 singles Columbia Records singles Songs with music by Robert Allen (composer) Songs with lyrics by Al Stillman Number-one singles in the United States Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients {{1950s-pop-song-stub