Longer

1979

Dan Fogelberg

Same Old Lang Syne, of course, wasn't Dan Fogelberg's only hit, by far. He actually cracked the top 10 4 times in the late 70s and early 8os. His biggest hit, 'Longer', was also the one that, as he jokes in the liner notes to one of his retrospective albums, put him in the elevators, meaning it signaled his transition from more Rock based songs to the easy listening music he's best known for.

And if you were around in late '79, and early '80, that uber-mellow guitar and horn intro is as familiar to you as your front yard, because it was all over the radio during that era. The song and it's theme were both pretty simple...a guy telling his true love just exactly how much he loved her by comparing their love to rock-solid objects of beauty in nature. The song was haunting and lovely, and struck a chord with the record buying Seventies Kids that we were at the time.

Dan came up with the song...or rather it came to him...during vacation in Hawaii, while he was chilling out in a hammock in Maui and looking up at the stars. The lyrics just started popping (As he put it, this song just seemed to be flying around the heavens just looking for a good home.). It found one...he polished the lyrics, set them to music, and made a classic.

Longer was released just about exactly a year before his beloved Christmas classic, 'Same Old Lang Syne', and just about perfectly twinned that song's chart run. 'Longer' was released on December 15th of 79, peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 exactly three months later on March 15^th of '80, and hung around the charts for 22 weeks, the longest chart run of any of his 4 biggest hits. It also hung on to the the runner-up slot for two weeks, and the two songs that kept it out of the #1 spot were both about as opposite to 'Longer' in style as you can get. Crazy Little Thing Called Love, by Pink Floyd, beat it out the first week, and the second week it was crowded out of the Top Spot by Queen's Another Brick In The Wall.

'Longer' did even better on the Adult Contemporary Chart, snagging the #1 spot and hanging on to it for five weeks. The song's timeless. There will always be couples in love, and they will always be trying to vocalize their love for each other. 'Longer' puts that love to words about as well as it's ever been done. That's what pushed it to #2, made it a classic, and keeps it on Oldies Station play-lists to this very day. And I have a sneakin' suspicion that our kids'll continue to hear it for decades to come!

So Enjoy! 'Longer' by Dan Fogelberg

Leader Of The Band

1981

Dan Fogelberg

When most people who were both around in the early 80s and young enough (Either in years or in soul) to enjoy the popular music of the era think,' Dan Fogelberg Song', 'Leader Of The Band' is one of the two songs that come instantly to mind. 'Leader Of The Band was also, by far, Dan Fogelberg's most personal song. The tune was a love song to his dad, and a beautiful one...both in melody, and in thought...at that. He wrote it as a tribute to Fogelberg family patriarch Lawrence Fogelberg, who was a long time high school band leader and teacher in their home town of Peoria Ill, and who Dan credited him with molding him into the person he was.

The other song that everyone thinks of as a Dan Fogelberg hit is 'Same Old Lang Syne', and interestingly enough, the songs tied for chart position among his four biggest hits...both peaked at #9. 'Leader Of The Band' was released the day after Thanksgiving of 1981, on November 28^th, and peaked at #9 just more that three months later on March 6^th 1982

Everyone who was around back then recognizes that mellow, soothing. guitar intro, and I have a feeling most everyone can swing into '...An Only Child Alone And Wild, A Cabinet Makers Son...' right on cue. It's a beautiful song, and anyone who loved their dad can not tell me that they don't get a little misty-eyed when they hear it.

This is actually my favorite Dan Fogelberg tune, and it's way up on my list of favorite songs. I have a feeling I'm not alone in feeling that way, either. I've always though 'Leader Of The Band' should be required listening on Fathers Day...it perfectly illustrates what the relationship between a father and a son should be.

Lawrence Fogelberg got to hear his son's musical tribute to him...the song was released on November 26th, 1981, Lawrence passed away in August of '82. And Dan Fogelberg got to tell his dad how uin felt about him with a classic..

So Enjoy! Leader Of The Band, by Dan Fogelberg.

Hard To Say

1981

Dan Fogelberg

The wild thing about Dan Fogelberg's second biggest hit is the fact that it's the one I've heard the least on Oldies stations.

It's still an awesome little tune though, with an upbeat but mellow melody, and meaningful soulful lyrics...the latter definitely one of Dan Fogelberg's specialties. He wrote 'Hard To Say' while recovering form surgery, and (My take here) its a retrospective on how much a guy loves his girlfriend or wife, even though they're apart. Of course, their can be as many meanings of songs as there are fans of that song. What ever your take on it, it's very definite soulful ear candy, and makes you pause and reflect (Likely while mouthing the lyrics!)

'Hard To Say' was Dan's second biggest hit, peaking at #7 on The Hot 100 on Halloween of 1981 after being released two months earlier, on August 28^th. It hung around the charts for 19 weeks.

I..and everyone else alive and teenage to young Twenty-something in late summer and Fall of '8...heard it constantly, usually on WRVQ...'Q-94'...in Richmond, though it was also a force over on the area's easy listening station (98.1, or 'Lite98', WTVR-FM). Like all four of Dan Fogelberg's 'Big 4' . it was also a huge hit on the Adult/Contemporary charts, where it spent three weeks at #2

It always amazes me when songs this good don't show up on Oldies stations any more than they do. This is a sweet, thoughtful little tune, and it should be around forever.

So Enjoy! Hard To Say by Dan Fogelberg.

I really like the way this video gives a tip o' the hat to Dan Fogelberg's backing band...and let me tell ya, Dan had some pretty accomplished musicians backing him up on 'Hard To Say'. Tom Scott was blowin' the sax, and there are only a very few other saxophone players who approach his abilities on than most awesome of all wind instruments. He lent his talents to a slew of hits and popular TV theme songs during the 70s and 80s. Glen Frye...who was also lent his vocal skills to a little group called 'The Eagles...sang back-up vocals, and Keyboard duties were handled by Mike Utley, who for years played keyboard with Margaritaville's mayor and best know resident, the one and only Jimmy Buffet.

Same Old Lang Syne

1980

Dan Fogelberg

I'm going to finish off my Christmas Song posts with a modern classic from a certain Mr Fogelberg...a song that I've always thought of as more of a New Years song than a Christmas song, somehow, even if it is set on Christmas Eve. I've also heard it referred to as 'The Saddest Christmas Song Ever Recorded, which I have to agree with.

But I still love the song, as do a few million other Dan Fogelberg fans world-wide. That classic piano intro tells you you're getting ready to listen to something special...but many people have no idea that, when they hear that classic intro, they're getting ready to hear a musical telling of a true story. That's right...the story Dan tells in 'The Same Old Lang Syne' really happened.

Dan Fogelberg grew up in Peoria, Illinois, and was a member of Woodruff High School's class of '69, as was a girl named Jill Anderson. The two of them dated in high school, then went to different colleges after graduation, then after college Jill got married and went to Chicago, Dan when to Colorado to pursue his passion for music.

Christmas Eve several years down the road. Both of them were back in Peoria to visit their families for Christmas, both were sent on errands. Jill was sent for eggnog, Dan headed out to find whipped cream to make Irish Coffee. Remember this was back in the Seventies, when the concept of everything staying open on Christmas Eve Night (And many convenience stores staying open on Christmas Day) was all but unheard of. There was exactly one store open in Peoria that snowy Christmas Eve, and it was at Frye Ave and Abington Rd, at the top of Prospect Hill. Being Peoriaites, both of them knew this was where they'd have to go to get the required items, and to the joy of Fogelberg fans everywhere, they fell up in there at the same time. And from there, the lyrics of the song, and the story just about parallel each other. They did indeed grab a six-pack and sat in her car talking about their lives and old times for about two hours.

Jill actually gave an interview after Dan's death in 2007, and she said that there were only two inaccuracies in the song. Her eyes are actually green (Blue was probably substituted because it fit with the lyrics and melody better) and her hubby was a Phys Ed teacher and not an architect. She heard the song about five years later and probably couldn't help but smile. And she didn't reveal her identity or the fact that the song was indeed based on a true story because she didn't want to cause problems with Dan's marriage.

Interestingly enough, 'Same Old Lang Syne' wasn't actually released as a Christmas song, it was released as a mainstream single...even though it was released in mid-December of 198, and was set during Christmas The song didn't peak until three months later, when it cracked the Billboard Hot 100's Top 10 to land at #9. It'd stay on the charts for another four weeks

'Same Old Lang Syne' would show up on playlists again when Christmas '81 rolled around, and continue to do so for the following thirty-two or so Christmases. It became a Christmas Classic, but an interesting thing about this one...while you usually hear it around Christmas, when the Oldies and Easy Listening stations switch over to Christmas Music 24-7, you just might hear it in Mid-July, probably the only Christmas-themed song you can say that about.

I have a feeling that our kids and grandkids...and their kids and grandkids...will be hearing that classic piano intro, and listening to Dan Fogelberg's story of a Christmas Eve reunion with an old high school sweetheart long after we're gone. And that's a good thing!

So Enjoy...Dan Fogelberg's musical tale of running into his old girlfriend. Same Old Lang Syne.

I found two videos that I really liked///one with Lyrics on screen, and one without, and coudn't decide which i wanted to use...so I decide to include both. So as a bonus, Video the Second...this one with the lyrics on-screen.

 

 

Gotta throw a couple of interesting facts about Dan Fogelberg's Christmas classic in!
 Dan had some help making this into the classic that it became. That classic Sax solo at the end of the song? That was Smooth Jazz Mega-artist Michael Brecker. Sadly, Dan and Michael both left us too early, both loosing their battle with cancer the same year...2007. Dan was 56, Michael Brecker was 57.

A stretch of Abington Rd...the road that the convenience store where the events that inspired 'Same Old Lang Syne is located...was renamed Fogelberg Parkway in 2008. The store is still in business.