"You're the Inspiration" is a song written by
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 ...
and
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
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and recorded for their fourteenth studio album ''
Chicago 17
''Chicago 17'' is the fourteenth studio album by American band Chicago, released on May 14, 1984. It was the group's second release for Full Moon/Warner Bros. Records, their second album to be produced by David Foster and their last with foundin ...
'' (1984), with Cetera singing lead vocals. The third single released from that album, it reached on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in January 1985 and also climbed to the top position on the
Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
chart at the same time. The song won honors for Cetera from the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in 1986 in the most-performed songs category.
Peter Cetera re-recorded the song for his 1997 solo album ''
You're the Inspiration: A Collection''.
That same year he also recorded a single version with the vocal
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, t ...
.
History
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 ...
stated in a 2004 interview that "You're the Inspiration" started out as a song for
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted m ...
:
Cetera then changed some of the words and recorded the song with
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
for their ''
Chicago 17
''Chicago 17'' is the fourteenth studio album by American band Chicago, released on May 14, 1984. It was the group's second release for Full Moon/Warner Bros. Records, their second album to be produced by David Foster and their last with foundin ...
'' album.
Personnel
*
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 ...
– lead and
background vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...
, arrangements
*
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. ...
– guitars, keyboards, background vocals
*
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 ...
– keyboards, background 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 ...
– synth bass
*
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 ...
– keyboards
*
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 occasionall ...
– guitar
*
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 ...
– guitar
Additional personnel
*
Carlos Vega
Carlos Vega (December 7, 1956 – April 7, 1998) was a Cuban-born Los Angeles-based session drummer best known for his performances with James Taylor. As a part of the L.A. studio scene from the late 1970s through the 1990s, Vega contributed to ...
– drums
*
Michael Landau – guitar
*
Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar
*
Mark Goldenberg
Mark Goldenberg (born April 10, 1952) is an American guitarist and songwriter, noted for his session work and composition of successful songs for Linda Ronstadt, the Pointer Sisters, and others.
Biography Early career
Raised in Chicago, Illin ...
– guitar
*
Paulinho da Costa – percussion
*
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 ...
– keyboards,
synth programming, synth bass (
Moog), additional arrangements
*
John Van Tongeren – synthesizer programming
*Erich Bulling – synthesizer programming
*Marcus Ryle – synthesizer programming
*Gary Grant – trumpet
*
Greg Adams – trumpet
*Kenny Cetera – background vocals
*David Foster and
Jeremy Lubbock – orchestration
Music video
The video depicted the band performing intercut with scenes of embracing couples of varying ages ranging from young kids to a couple resembling
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...
and
Madonna at the time. Lead singer Peter Cetera is seen wearing a T-shirt from the British goth band
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
. During his performance, Cetera is sitting the whole time. It also uses an alternate version of the song without the guitar sting between the second and third choruses.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Peter Cetera feat. Az Yet version
In 1997, Peter Cetera re-recorded "You're the Inspiration" for his 1997 solo album ''
You're the Inspiration: A Collection''. Due to Cetera featuring on R&B vocal 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, t ...
's cover of "
Hard to Say I'm Sorry
"Hard to Say I'm Sorry" is a power ballad written by bassist Peter Cetera, who also sang lead on the track, and producer David Foster, for the group Chicago. It was released on May 17, 1982, as the lead single from the album ''Chicago 16''. On S ...
" earlier in the year, they collaborated on a remix of Cetera's solo recording of "You're the Inspiration", which was released as a single. This version reached No. 77 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 29 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Like Az Yet's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry", Cetera and Az Yet's version of "You're the Inspiration" was also 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 ...
.
Music video
The music video for Peter Cetera and Az Yet's "You're the Inspiration" was directed by
Steven R. Monroe and was filmed at Westward Beach (
Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Malib ...
).
Track listings
# "You're the Inspiration" – 4:07
# "
Hard to Say I'm Sorry
"Hard to Say I'm Sorry" is a power ballad written by bassist Peter Cetera, who also sang lead on the track, and producer David Foster, for the group Chicago. It was released on May 17, 1982, as the lead single from the album ''Chicago 16''. On S ...
" – 3:13
Charts
See also
*
List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1985 (U.S.)
Adult Contemporary is a chart published by '' Billboard'' ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the adult contemporary music (AC) market. In 1985, 19 songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Adult Contempora ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1984 songs
1984 singles
1997 singles
Chicago (band) songs
Peter Cetera songs
Az Yet songs
Songs written by David Foster
Songs written by Peter Cetera
Song recordings produced by David Foster
Song recordings produced by Babyface (musician)
Warner Records singles
Full Moon Records singles
Rock ballads
1980s ballads