Paul Anka — “Hold Me ‘Til The Morning Comes”

Entered Top 40:  September 3, 1983
2 weeks 
Peaked at: 40

One of the few artists to have #1 singles before and after the Beatles’ entire tenure, Paul Anka’s ’70s comeback extended beyond the wretched “Having My Baby.” Three other Top 20 hits followed until the well went dry in 1975. For his Walk A Fine Line album, Anka partnered with producer David Foster, who’d just overseen the band Chicago’s transition into a smooth ballad machine on their Chicago 16 LP. Foster cowrote Chicago’s big hits from that record (“Hard to Say I’m Sorry” and “Love Me Tomorrow“) with bassist Peter Cetera, who’d more or less established himself as the frontman. Foster cowrote half of Anka’s album, and brought in Cetera to sing on “Hold Me ‘Til the Morning Comes.” Ostensibly Cetera was a guest vocalist; in modern parlance he’d get a “featuring” credit. I couldn’t begrudge 1983 listeners for thinking they were actually hearing a new Chicago song with some other guy guesting, especially in Cetera’s chorus, which to me bites A LOT from “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.”

“Hold Me ‘Til the Morning Comes” was a #2 AC hit (blocked by our last song, “All Time High,” as well as DeBarge’s “All This Love“), but this would be Paul Anka’s last Top 40 appearance. In a couple of years (“sometime in the mid-’80s” per the Internet), Anka would go off on his band in a secretly-recorded tirade that he’d be asked about and goofed on for decades. In 2005 he’d get some music-blog attention for Rock Swings, a modern-rock covers album that includes “Wonderwall” and The Cure’s “Lovecats.” He’s still touring and doing his thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Lady Gaga or someone decided to ring him up for a project now that Tony Bennett’s gone. David Foster and Peter Cetera would stick together for another Chicago album, which would be the band’s biggest yet (we’ll see Chicago eventually, minus Cetera). Foster would continue working with lots of other artists; we’ll run into at least one of his other songs eventually. Most recently Foster wrote music for a Betty Boop musical called BOOP! premiering in Chicago soon, which if it doesn’t include at least one cute animal being poked in the nose, will be very disappointing.