Simply put, Chicago’s “Hard Habit to Break” is a pop masterpiece. It is to pop songs what Nadia Comanici was at the 1976 Olympics: a perfect 10. Having heard the Steven Kipner demo, David Foster took a rather bland, middle-of-the-road ballad and turned it into something absolutely magical.
It didn’t hurt that Foster had the lightning-in-a-bottle vocal chemistry of Peter Cetera and Bill Champlin, nor that he knew how to arrange their vocals in such a way that it got the most out of that chemistry. He put all the right instruments together, and even tossed in a brief flute interlude for Walt Parazaider to remind the fans that yes, this was still Chicago – despite the relative absence of the horns, as compared to their ’70s material.
The other songs on 1984’s Chicago 17 were similarly well arranged and produced, and all of them were contributors to the album’s massive success. Still, none was quite as well arranged as this, and none captured that special Champlin/Cetera vocal mix quite as well as this gem. A chemistry that had been strongly hinted at on 1982’s Chicago 16 was perfected on “Hard Habit to Break.”
And perhaps more so than any other tracks on Chicago 16 or 17, this moment frustrates fans when they consider Peter Cetera’s imminent departure. In the end, we only got blessed with two albums of that tight vocal chemistry before Peter decamped to spend more time with his family and a continued career on his own terms.
Now that both Cetera and Champlin are out of Chicago, I’ve been hoping and praying, vigorously rubbing my rabbit’s foot and holding my horseshoe, and wishing on falling stars and fallen eyelashes for Peter Cetera and Bill Champlin to do one more album together as a duo. Chicago’s “Hard Habit to Break” was the promise of great things yet to come, but unfortunately that was never fully realized.
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