Along Comes a Woman

"Along Comes a Woman" is a song written by Peter Cetera and Mark Goldenberg for the group Chicago and recorded for their album Chicago 17 (1984), with Cetera singing lead vocals. The fourth single released from that album, it is the last Chicago single released with original singer/bassist Cetera, who left the band in the summer of 1985.

Upon its release in 1985, Billboard magazine highlighted the single in its "Singles: Pop: Picks" section, as a "new release with the greatest chart potential," and called it a "hard rocker." At the end of the year, Billboard magazine music critic, Linda Moleski, listed the single among her top ten highlights of the year as, “An excellent funk-pop sound that’s reflective of 1985.”

The original album version was 4:14 in length. It was remixed to a more high-tech mid-80's sound for the single release which runs 3:47 in length.

Music video

The music video, shot in black and white, combined themes from the films Raiders of the Lost Ark and Casablanca and featured Peter Cetera, the lead vocalist on the song, in the Indiana Jones/Rick Blaine-type role. It was produced by Jon Small of Picture Vision, Inc., and was directed by Jay Dubin, who also directed the syndicated TV series The Wombles in the 1980s. The video was released in 1985, during what some call the "golden era" of MTV.

Personnel

• Peter Cetera – lead and backing vocals
• Bill Champlin – keyboards, guitars, backing vocals
• Robert Lamm – keyboards, backing vocals
• Lee Loughnane – trumpet
• James Pankow – trombone, horn arrangements
• Walter Parazaider – woodwinds
• Danny Seraphine – drums
• Chris Pinnick — guitars

Additional personnel

• David Foster – keyboards, synth bass, synthesizer programming, rhythm and vocal arrangements
• John Van Tongeren – synthesizer programming
• Erich Bulling – synthesizer programming
• Marcus Ryle – synthesizer programming
• Michael Landau – guitars
• Paul Jackson, Jr. – guitars
• Mark Goldenberg – guitars, additional arrangements
• Paulinho da Costa – percussion
• Gary Grant – trumpet
• Greg Adams – trumpet
• Kenny Cetera – backing vocals

Chart performance

"Along Comes a Woman" reached a peak of No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

References