"Hard to Say I'm Sorry" is a

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.J. M. C ...

written by bassist

Peter Cetera Peter Paul Cetera ( ; born September 13, 1944) is an American retired musician best known for being a lead vocalist and the bassist of the rock band Chicago from 1967 until his departure in 1985, before launching a successful solo career. His c ...

, who also sang lead on the track, and producer

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

, for the group

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It was released on May 17, 1982, as the lead single from the album ''

Chicago 16 ''Chicago 16'' is the thirteenth studio album by the American band Chicago, released on June 7, 1982. It is considered their "comeback" album because it was their first album to go platinum since 1978's '' Hot Streets.'' It made it into the ''B ...

''. On September 11 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 "No Tell Lover" is a song written by Peter Cetera, Lee Loughnane, and Danny Seraphine for the group Chicago and recorded for their album ''Hot Streets'' (1978), with Cetera and Donnie Dacus singing lead vocals. The second single released from that ...

" 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), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

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, broadca ...

(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 is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

, 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

styling. A second movement of the song, "Get Away", prominently does feature the Chicago horns, and it was co-written by

Robert Lamm Robert William Lamm (born October 13, 1944) is an American keyboardist, guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He wrote many of the band's biggest hits, including " Questions 67 & 68", " Does ...

. 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

on the piano, as well as three members of the American rock band Toto, including

Steve Lukather Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...

on guitar and

David Paich David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...

and

Steve Porcaro Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of Jeff in 1992 and M ...

both contributing

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

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. The song was also featured as the ending theme in the movie and soundtrack for ''

Summer Lovers ''Summer Lovers'' is a 1982 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Randal Kleiser and starring Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah and Valerie Quennessen. It was filmed on location on the island of Santorini, Greece. The original mus ...

'', 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, best known for directing the 1978 musical romantic-comedy film '' Grease''. Biography John Randal Kleiser was born in Lebanon ...

, starring

Peter Gallagher Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19, 1955) is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series ''The O.C.'' from 2003 to 2007, recurr ...

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film '' The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, i ...

and

Valerie Quennessen Valerie may refer to: People *Saint Valerie (disambiguation), a number of saints went by the name Valerie * Valerie (given name), a feminine given name Songs *"Valerie", a 1981 song by Quarterflash, from ''Quarterflash'' *"Valerie", a 1982 so ...

, and filmed on location on the island of

Santorini Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...

, 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.

Personnel

"Hard to Say I'm Sorry"

– lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar *

–

acoustic piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, Minimoog bass *

– guitar *

–

s *

James Pankow James Carter Pankow is an American trombone player, songwriter and brass instrument player, best known as a founding member of the rock band Chicago. Early life, family and education Born in St. Louis, Missouri of German and Irish descent, Pa ...

– trombone *

– synthesizers, synthesizers programming *

Danny Seraphine Daniel Peter Seraphine (born August 28, 1948) is an American drummer, record producer, theatrical producer and film producer. He is best known as the original drummer and a founding member of the rock band Chicago, a tenure which lasted from F ...

– drums *Gerard Vinci – violin *Strings arranged by Peter Cetera, David Foster and Jeremy Lubbock

"Get Away"

* Peter Cetera – lead and backing vocals, bass guitar *

Bill Champlin William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, musician, arranger, producer, and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the band Chicago from 1981–2009. H ...

– keyboards, guitar, backing vocals *

– keyboards, backing vocals *

Lee Loughnane Lee David Loughnane (pronounced LOCK-nain; born October 21, 1946) is an American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter, best known for being a founding member of the rock band Chicago. Early life and education Lee David Loughna ...

– trumpet,

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

, piccolo trumpet * James Pankow – trombone, horn arrangements *

Walter Parazaider Walter Parazaider (born March 14, 1945) is an American woodwind musician best known for being a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He plays a wide variety of wind instruments, including saxophone, flute, and clarinet. He also occasionally ...

– woodwinds * Danny Seraphine – drums Additional Personnel *

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 Mitch ...

Chris Pinnick Chris Pinnick is an American guitarist and songwriter, probably best known for his work with the band Chicago from 1980–1985. Pinnick was born on July 23, 1953 in Van Nuys, California and took up the guitar at the age of seven. An early exampl ...

– guitars * David Paich – synthesizers * Steve Porcaro – synthesizers, synthesizers programming

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Az Yet version

American R&B group

Az Yet Az Yet is an American R&B group from Philadelphia, best known for their songs " Last Night" and the cover "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" originally performed by Chicago. Formation Formed in 1989 initially as a duo with Shawn Rivera and Dion Allen, th ...

included a cover version of "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" on their 1996 self-titled debut album, which was produced by

Babyface Babyface or Baby Face can refer to: Nicknames * Lester Joseph Gillis a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, an infamous 1930s bank robber * Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette (1933–1971), an American hard bop and soul-jazz musician * "Baby Face", Jimmy McLarnin ...

. A remix version by

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 The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

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 ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

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

Notable cover versions

* In 2015, country music star

Tim McGraw Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has released 16 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, four for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those album ...

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 (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. 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 List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...

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 former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...

and

Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov ( bg, Григор Димитров, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on ...

, with

at the piano, while at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

. Haas is the son-in-law of Foster.

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

History

Music video

Personnel

"Hard to Say I'm Sorry"

"Get Away"

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Az Yet version

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notable cover versions

See also

References