I want Peter Cetera's hair
Seriously, have you ever seen such great hair? Peter Cetera is the man! (Or should I say "the mane?")
After debuting this week's Stuck in the 80s podcast about "romance in the 80s," I can't seem to get "Glory of Love" out of my head. (Remember former co-host Cathy Wos' advice for defeating the ear worm? Hum the theme to "The A-Team." Well, it's not working this time.)
Lots of cool trivia associated with this particular song:
- The tune was actually co-written by Cetera, his ex-wife and David Foster ("St. Elmo's Fire" score).
- The song was written for Rocky 4, but they passed on it.
- It earned Grammy and Oscar nominations in 1987, but won neither (losing the Grammy to Sting and the Oscar to "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun.)
In a 1986 interview with Japan's SoundCity, Cetera said hearing "Glory of Love" on the radio was a "strange" experience at first, mainly because radio stations assumed it was a Chicago tune -- not a "Peter Cetera song." By the time the DJs got it right, the tune had become Cetera's first No. 1 solo single.


Relive the music, movies and culture of the greatest decade ever with Times online editor Steve Spears. A teen during the decade, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.
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Have you tried the sharp, quick blow to the head with a blunt object trick to drive the song from your head?
He may have had great hair, but Peter Cetera had that weird underbite thing goin' on. If I didn't know better, I would think he had a glob of Skol between his lip and gums.
Posted by: Marissa | February 10, 2008 at 09:40 AM
True confession time: While I'm not anywhere near an uber-fan, I LOVE Peter Cetera's voice. Both his solo stuff and work with Chicago. Classic.
"Glory of Love" -- good.
"After All" (his duet with Cher) -- great.
"One Good Woman" -- In the top two of my favorite all-time guilty pleasure songs. (Not that you asked, but number one is "Paradise By The Dashboard Light.")
And yes, he has really, really great hair. Although I never noticed the underbite thing. Probably because I was too busy being entranced by the voice to pay attention.
Posted by: jane | February 10, 2008 at 11:35 AM
On this same exact day in Seattle, I was being forced to listen to this song by a co-worker! How weird...
I threatened to hurt him if I woke up at 3 am humming this song. Luckily, the theme to The A-team did the trick.
Posted by: Cathy Wos | February 14, 2008 at 04:23 AM
Sadly, now I've moved on to humming "Along Comes a Woman," though there isn't a woman in sight. But I really enjoy breaking from the humming and bursting out the line "And you know that's it right."
Clearly I'm in need of an entire team of pychotherapists.
Posted by: Spears | February 14, 2008 at 06:32 AM