...And if you think that this is another blog about Chicago, you're sorta right. And sorta not. But it's not about the song mentioned in the title. I was just being clever there using an old song title.

Isn't it great when you find out something in pop culture that's one of those WOW moments? Something that you never knew, or that you never knew that you knew. I had one of those moments this weekend. Stick around, you might learn something you didn't know about pop music and an incredible opportunity for a songwriter...

I tuned into the archived webcast of a Bluebird Cafe show that occurred this past weekend. It was comprised of the lead singer of Sixpence None the Richer (Leigh Nash), famous for the song "Kiss Me", and a few songwriters that no one else had ever heard of unless you've followed the career or the myspace page of a certain bassist named Jason Scheff, who has been the bassist for Chicago since 1985 and took over the vacancy that Peter Cetera left in the band. He's also got a pedigree, being the song of Jerry Scheff who was the bassist for Elvis Presley (and Jason wrote a song about that, but that's another story).

Anyway, about 25 years ago, Jason noodled around and came up with a song. He wanted to get himself noticed and stop doing pop gigs and be a serious songwriter. He went and worked on it with the great Bobby Caldwell (famous for writing "What You Won't Do For Love" and Cetera's "Next Time I Fall" among others). Then it got shoved in a drawer for awhile because they just couldn't make it work - something about the chorus and verse being in different keys. I laugh, because that can be a killer for a song or a salvation. One day Jason works on it with a guy named Dennis Matowsky (who was part of the live show, and has been a prolific songwriter from "Maniac" from 'Flashdance' to "Mirror Mirror" for Diana Ross, to many many other things). Jason ends up recording it, tells Caldwell who loved Jason's version, and starts sending it around.

It lands in the hands of Warner Brothers, and inevitably leads to him getting the gig with Chicago. This little song he'd had for a couple of years sitting in a drawer. Then I find, while he's telling the story in the webcast, that Chicago was going to record this song, but it wasn't meant to be. This bums me out, but I know that he's going to play the song. It's a good feeling to hear a potentially lost gem, and then again, it's sad anticipation because your mind starts turning over the 'What If's... could it have been their biggest hit?

Anyway, while Chicago is mulling this over, another artist got his hands on it and a few things got changed in the recording, and he wanted it on his album. And then the whole album got scratched, except that one song. And the rest of the album was built around that one song. Good thing too, because that was the only hit from the album, but not the only hit for that artist.

You see, Boz Scaggs had gotten his hands on Jason Scheff's "Heart of Mine" and recorded it for the 'Other Roads' album. It made it to #35 on the Hot 100, and #3 on the A/C charts. And in 1988 it was the song that gave me dreams, hope and inspiration that I would find that true love that I really wished for someday because I was fairly certain that the jerk I was seeing at the time wasn't it.

My heart was being broken left and right and stomped on, my face being rubbed in indiscretions, and I was just a stupid fool. Hey, I was 16 - what the hell did I know? But oh, I bought into the fairy tale, and I wanted this guy to be the one even though I knew deep down he was far from. I bought the sheet music and played that song until my fingers hurt from the strange key changes from the verse to the chorus. But it still brought me hope for 4 long years. I even made the trek out to Slim's in San Francisco when Boz was there one night just in the hopes of hearing that song live. I wasn't disappointed, but I'd never paid attention to the songwriting credit.

Who pays attention to the songwriting credits? Certainly I didn't... then.

Largely forgotten after I met my DH, "Heart of Mine" sat in the back of my brain only being brought to the front of consciousness when I heard it on the radio. When I was watching this webcast, I just about fell out of my chair and then ran like a maniac for my piano bench to dig up that almost 20 year old piece of music when I heard Jason play out the first 2 measures of the opening. And right there across the top was Jason Scheff's name - someone I've respected as a songwriter for so many years with Chicago, but it never occurred to me that he had other songs out there.

I was sure that he did have other songs out there, but it didn't fully register. Like it didn't register with me until recently that my one and only favorite Manhattan Transfer song ("Smile Again") was written by Bill Champlin (also of Chicago and of Sons of Champlin). I knew Bill had other credits because he came to Chicago with a pedigree, having written the Grammy winning "After the Love is Gone" (recorded by Earth, Wind and Fire) and George Benson's "Turn Your Love Around". Despite that, I didn't think much about writing credits outside of the band's recordings. Silly me, they've got to pay the bills somehow, right? It's not just residual checks and the annual tours...

I have a copy now of Jason's original version of "Heart of Mine" thanks to someone with a site that's got various audio files from the band and their solo efforts. No, I'm not even going to think about the copyright violation that might be happening there, but I'm keeping my copy of the file on my iPod shuffle and that's about it. It's just for me, and no one else. And I'm thankful I have a copy of it because the song is just so much more with the original lyrics. I just think about the potential that Chicago could have had with that song (which probably would have appeared on either '18' or '19') and while it seems like a lost chance, I wouldn't trade Boz's vocals for a second. Ok, after hearing Jason's and thinking about a layer of horns in there, maybe a second, but that's about it...

...it just goes to prove that sometimes those songwriting credits provide a pleasant surprise. And hey, did you know that "Maniac" (from 'Flashdance') was originally inspired by the capture of John Wayne Gacy? Yeah, songwriters are really interesting guys to listen to when they start talking...