From CHICAGO 18
Written by David Foster, Written by David Foster, Tom Keane & Richard Baskin
When Peter Cetera left Chicago in 1985, David Foster had to try and keep the band going through the loss of its most prominent singer/songwriter and also working on the follow-up to the mega successful “Chicago 17” and its millions of copies sold, Grammys and hit singles. The result, “Chicago 18”, was released in September 1986 and it’s a damn good work.
There’s a new singer and bass player, Jason Scheff, the son of Elvis Presley’s bass player, Jerry Scheff, and a very good singer/songwriter in his own right. Foster looked outside the band for help and among the songwriter’s names we can find Bobby Caldwell, Steve Kipner, Randy Goodrum, James Newton Howard, Steve Lukather and Tom Keane. The record didn’t match the highs of “Chicago 17” but was quickly certified gold and had four singles on Billboard’s Top 100.
The first single was a remake of one of the band trademark songs, “25 or 6 to 4”, that Foster rearranged with good results but it didn’t go higher than # 48, while two of the other singles reached the top 20. One of the songs was “If She Would Have Been Faithful” at # 17, but the big hit of out of “Chicago 18” was our song of the week, “Will You Still Love Me?”. This ballad (co-written by Foster with Tom Keane and Richard Baskin) has all the ingredients a Foster ballad needed in the second half of the eighties, lots of time changes, synths, keyboards and guitars all over it. Scheff and Bill Champlin trade the incredible vocals here with Jeremy Lubbock providing a delicious string arrangement to this # 3 hit single.
After this album Chicago and Foster parted ways and many fans wish they didn’t cause the artistic and commercial results they achieved during their collaboration remain one of the best of both their careers.
Listen
[audio:https://www.fozfan.com/archives/clips/will_you_still_love_me.mp3|titles=will you still love me|artists=Chicago]
Lead Vocal: Jason Scheff & Bill Champlin
Keyboards: David Foster
Guitars: Michael Landau
Drums: Danny Seraphine
Bass: Jason Scheff
Background Vocals: Bill Champlin and Jason Scheff
Strings arranged by Jeremy Lubbock
Produced and Arranged by David Foster
Lyrics
Take me as I am
Put your hand in mine now and forever
Darling here I stand, stand before you now
Deep inside I always knew
It was you, you and me
Two hearts drawn together bound by destiny
It was you and you for me
Every road leads to your door
Every step I take for evermore
Just say you love me for the rest of your life
I gotta lot of love and I don’t want to let go
Will you still love me for the rest of my life?
‘Cause I can’t go on
No, I can’t go on
I can’t go on
If I’m on my own
Take me as I am
Put your heart in mine, stay with me forever
‘Cause I am just a man who never understood
I never had a thing to prove
‘Till there was you
You and me
Then it all came clear so suddenly
How close to you that I wanna be
Just say you love me for the rest of your life
I gotta lot of love and I don’t wan to let go
Will you still love me for the rest of my life?
‘Cause I can’t go on
No, I can’t go on
I can’t go on
If I’m on my own
Do you believe a love could run so strong?
Do you believe a love could pass you by?
There was no special one for me
I was the lonely one, you see
But then my heart lost all control
Now you’re all that I know
Just say you love me for the rest of your life
I gotta lot of love and I don’t wan to let go
Will you still love me for the rest of my life?
‘Cause I can’t go on
No, I can’t go on
I can’t go on
If I’m on my own
I can’t go on
No, I can’t go on
‘Cause I can’t go on (Will you still love me?)
No, I can’t go on (Just say you love me)
I can’t go on
Without somebody I can call my own
‘Cause I can’t go on (Will you still love me?)
No, I can’t go on (Just say you love me)
Just stay around
‘Cause I can’t go on (Will you still love me?)
No, I can’t go on (Just say you love me)
I can’t go on
If you could say your love
‘Cause I can’t go on (Will you still love me?)
No, I can’t go on (Just say you love me)
Stay around, you’ll never be alone