The song, as well as the album on which it is featured, was a marked departure from Chicago's traditional soft rock, horn-driven sound, taking on a polished and modern feel. With minimal horns, the track instead featured more layered synthesizers and heavier distorted guitar in a contemporary 1980s styling. A second movement of the song, "Get Away", does prominently feature the Chicago horns, and it was co-written by Robert Lamm. Deviating from Chicago's practice of having mostly band members playing on their albums, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" featured several session musicians. The song featured producer David Foster on the piano, as well as three members of the American rock bandToto, including Steve Lukather on guitar and David Paich and Steve Porcaro both contributing synthesizers. The song's vocals were performed by Peter Cetera. The only other member of Chicago besides Cetera that played on the track was drummer Danny Seraphine. The song was also featured as the ending theme in the movie and soundtrack for Summer Lovers, a 1982 film written and directed by Randal Kleiser, starring Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah and Valerie Quennessen, and filmed on location on the island of Santorini, Greece.
Music video
Chicago made a music video for the song. According to Cetera, the videos for "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" and "Love Me Tomorrow" were shot on the same day. The band appears in a black colored room with diamonds on the wall.
Personnel
Peter Cetera – lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
In 1996, the R&B group Az Yet included a cover version on their self-titled debut album. The song, later released as a single on February 3, 1997, was produced by Babyface, remixed by David Foster, featured vocals from Peter Cetera, and peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The single reached platinum status and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by an R&B Group or Duo with Vocal. David Foster won a BMI Pop Award for this version.
In 2003, the Canadian boy bandb4-4 recorded a cover version included as a bonus track on the "limited edition" of their second albumIn Your Face.
In 2007, Irish boy band Westlife covered the song on the B-side to their single "Home" from the band's seventh UK #1 album Back Home. The song charted itself without being properly released as a single.
In 2008, Barry Manilow covered the song on his album The Greatest Songs of the Eighties.
In 2015, country music star Tim McGraw released a "behind-the-scenes" video of him and his band performing "Hard to Say I’m Sorry" as a warm-up for his show in Chicago. At the end of the song he turns to the camera and says, "Hello, Chicago."
After interviewing Peter Cetera while he was in Lucerne, Switzerland to perform at the Retro Festival in 2016, Swiss interviewer and musician, Phil Dankner, performed the song for Cetera.
In January 2017, Roger Federer tweeted a video of him singing the song with fellow professional tennis players, Tommy Haas and Grigor Dimitrov, with David Foster at the piano, while at the Australian Open. Haas is the son-in-law of Foster.
Sampling
German Eurodance group Aquagen sampled the verses of the song on their song with the same title, from the 2002 album Weekender.
