162. A well-timed "Ooo!"

162. "Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away" by Chicago

There are three kinds of people in the world. There are those that like to hear the first three minutes and 45 seconds of the slow rock ballad "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" with a fade-out ending before it gets into the fast-paced 1 minute and 20 seconds of the "Get Away" part of the song. Then there are those that think "Get Away" is the reward we get for listening to the first three minutes and 45 seconds of the song. Which one are you?



I'm more of the latter than the former. If you are just listening to it in your room or if the song is on the radio, "Get Away" should always, ALWAYS be played at the end. It is a rocking, piano-and-brass-filled aural treat that produces tingly goosebumps and an invigorating jolt of energy.

One of my favorite memories of my cousin Randy is when this song came over the radio late one night as we were laying on our beds listening to music before going to sleep. When "Get Away" started playing, we both whooped with joy, cranked up the volume, air-drummed the lead-in, and then windmilled the power chords like Pete Townshend. After that, we started air-drumming more and more vigorously until we ended up jumping up and down on our beds and dancing around the room while laughing like the fools we were. It was a great spontaneous moment when we just let loose and enjoyed music as only teenagers can.

For me, there is only one situation in which I will not scream "Nooooo!" when the song fades out before "Get Away." You do NOT want to hear this last part of the song if you are slow dancing to the first part with someone you really like. If you don't like the person, any reason to get out of the clinch is a good one. But if you like the person, there is nothing more awkward than having to break off a slow dance mid-song to transition into a fast dance. The only thing worse is if the song goes from a slow dance to a fast dance and then back to a slow dance again. That is the absolute worst thing that can happen with a dance song. And I think someone should have told this to Lionel Richie before he wrote "Say You, Say Me." Yes, it won him an Oscar for Best Original Song back in '86, but at what price to humanity?

Which brings us to the third kind of person--people that like to dance to "Say You, Say Me." These people fully embraced irrationality a long, long time ago. What probably drove them to their special level of crazy was the music video to "Say You, Say Me," which features clips of Lionel singing into the camera alternated with scenes from the movie "White Knights." The movie starred dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, so you know it's got to be in the same genre as other famous 80s dance movies, like "Flashdance," "Dirty Dancing," and "Throw Mama From the Train." Now, I like watching Russian ballet dancers get kicked in the gut. A lot. But it would need to happen at least a dozen more times in this video before I'd be able to get over my aversion to the slow-fast-slow tempo changes of this schizophrenic dancing disaster. It's so bad it makes you want to stop dancing and start kung-fu fighting with your dance partner!