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"Hard to Say I'm Sorry" is a 1982
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Balla ...
by American rock band
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. It was written by bassist Peter Cetera, who also sang the
lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
on the track, and producer
David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...
. It was released on May 17, 1982, as the lead single from the album ''
Chicago 16 ''Chicago 16'' is the thirteenth studio album, sixteenth overall by the American rock music, rock band Chicago (band), Chicago, released on June 7, 1982. It is considered their "comeback" album because it was their first album to go platinum si ...
''. On September 11 of that year, it reached No. 1 for two weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was the group's second No. 1 single. It was their first top 50 hit since " No Tell Lover" in 1978 and it spent twelve weeks in the top 5 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The single was nominated for a
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in September of the same year. Songwriter Cetera, a member of the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
(ASCAP), won an ASCAP Pop Music Award for the song in the category, Most Performed Songs.


History

The song, as well as the album on which it is featured, was a marked departure from Chicago's traditional
soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...
, horn-driven sound, taking on a polished and modern feel. With minimal horns, the track instead featured more layered synthesizers and heavier distorted guitar in a 1980s
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Balla ...
styling. A second movement of the song, "Get Away", prominently does feature the Chicago horns, and it was co-written by Robert Lamm. Deviating from Chicago's practice of having mostly band members playing on their albums, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" featured several session musicians. The song featured producer
David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...
on the piano,
Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record-producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitchel ...
and Chris Pinnick on guitars as well as two members of the American rock band Toto, including David Paich and Steve Porcaro both contributing
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
s. The song's vocals were performed by Peter Cetera, who also plays acoustic guitar. The only other member of Chicago besides Cetera that played on the track was drummer Danny Seraphine. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' called it a "stately pop ballad" with "even more of an orchestral sweep than usual." The song was also featured as the ending theme in the movie and soundtrack for '' Summer Lovers'', a 1982 film written and directed by
Randal Kleiser John Randal Kleiser (born July 20, 1946) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known for directing the films ''Grease (film), Grease'' (1978), ''The Blue Lagoon (1980 film), The Blue Lagoon'' (1 ...
, starring Peter Gallagher,
Daryl Hannah Daryl Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her film debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film ''The Fury (1978 film), The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various films across the ...
and Valerie Quennessen, and filmed on location on the island of
Santorini Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southern ...
, Greece.


Music video

Chicago made a music video for the song. According to Cetera, the videos for "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" and " Love Me Tomorrow" were shot on the same day. The band appears in a black colored room with diamonds on the wall.


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications and sales


Az Yet version

American R&B group Az Yet included a cover version of "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" on their 1996 self-titled debut album, which was produced by Babyface. A remix version by
David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...
was released as a single on February 3, 1997, and features vocals from Peter Cetera. Foster won a BMI Pop Award for this version. The song peaked at number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number eight on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It reached platinum status and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by an R&B Group or Duo with Vocal. Aside from the David Foster remix, the single includes the album version (without Cetera), an
a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
version, and an extended remix.


Track listing

CD-single # "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (David Foster Remix featuring Peter Cetera) 3:18 # "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (Album Version) 3:14 # "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" ( Acappella) 3:14 # "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (Chase Extended Mix) 5:14


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


Other versions

* In 1983, Hong Kong singer
Leslie Cheung Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (born Cheung Fat-chung; 12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actor. One of the most influential cultural icons in the Sinophone, Sinophone world, Cheung was known for his debonair demeanor, flamb ...
released a Cantonese cover version with Chinese title "難以再說對不起" for his album '. * In 2002, German electronic dance music group Aquagen had a hit with their song of the same title, which sampled "Hard to Say I'm Sorry". This version reached No. 33 on the UK Singles Chart. * In 2015, country music singer
Tim McGraw Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 17 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, five for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albums have reached number one on ...
released a "behind-the-scenes" video of him and his band performing "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" as a warm-up for his show in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. At the end of the song he turns to the camera and says, "Hello, Chicago." * In January 2017,
Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...
tweeted a video of him singing the song with fellow professional tennis players
Tommy Haas Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German–American former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017, and was ranked world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in May ...
and
Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov Dimitrov (, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, making him the highest-ranked Bulgari ...
, with
David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...
at the piano, while at the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
. Haas is the son-in-law of Foster.


See also

* List of RPM number-one singles of 1982 * List of number-one hits of 1982 (Switzerland) * List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1982 (U.S.) * List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1982 (U.S.)


References

{{authority control 1982 songs 1982 singles 1997 singles Chicago (band) songs Az Yet songs 1980s ballads 1990s ballads Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand Number-one singles in Switzerland RPM Top Singles number-one singles Song recordings produced by David Foster Song recordings produced by Babyface (musician) Songs written by David Foster Songs written by Peter Cetera Arista Records singles Full Moon Records singles LaFace Records singles Warner Records singles Rock ballads