"If You Leave Me Now" is a song by the American rock group
Chicago, from their album Chicago X. It was written and sung by
bass player
Peter Cetera and released as a
single on July 30, 1976. It is also the
title of a Chicago compilation album released by Columbia Records (Columbia 38590) in 1983.
The single topped the
Billboard Hot 100 on October 23, 1976, and stayed there for two weeks, making it the first number one hit for the group as well as hitting number one on the
Easy Listening charts.[5] "If You Leave Me Now" was also Chicago's biggest hit internationally, topping the charts in other countries such as the
UK,
Australia,
Ireland,
Canada, and
Netherlands. In the UK it maintained the number one position for three weeks.[6] It was one of five "non-disco" songs to make it to number one in the US in a nine-month period of 1976.[7] According to writer Zachary Houle of PopMatters, "The song was so pervasive on radio upon its release that, reportedly, those tuning in in
New York could hear the song playing on four different stations, each with varying formats, simultaneously."[8]
In 2010 Chicago teamed with the
American Cancer Society and offered the opportunity to bid on the chance to sing their hit, "If You Leave Me Now" with them on stage live at their concerts, with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society to fight breast cancer.[17] The fund raising effort has continued in succeeding years.[18][19][20]
Promotion and Marketing
The Chicago X album art depicted a partially unwrapped chocolate bar bearing the Chicago logo.[8] In the same vein, the single, "If You Leave Me Now", was depicted as a chocolate "kiss" from the album in a full-page advertisement in Cash Box magazine.[21]
Band manager James William Guercio initially played acoustic guitar on the demo version of the track, figuring that regular guitarist Terry Kath would record the proper part when he was in the studio next. However, the band decided that Guercio's part sounded satisfactory and consequently left that effort on the record.[24]
Reception
Cash Box said that it's "an excellent
ballad," with "lushly colored" instrumentation and "carefully constructed" vocals.[25]
Upon the group's induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, entertainment and pop culture writer Troy L. Smith included "If You Leave Me Now" in his list of seven Chicago songs that "kill any doubt about their candidacy", and said, "...it's a key contributor to the band's fame and, thus, it's Rock Hall induction. And while we're being honest, Peter Cetera delivers, hands down, the best vocal performance of any Chicago song."[26]
In 1992, German music group Chess covered the song which achieved modest success. While the original is a
ballad, Chess's version is uptempo and danceable, adapted to the state of dance music of the 1990s. Their version is also on the compilations Larry präsentiert: Neue Smash-Hits 93 (English: Larry presents: New Smash-Hits 93) and Maxi Dance Sensation 9.
Track listing
CD maxi-single
If You Leave Me Now (Airplay Mix) - 3:53
If You Leave Me Now (12" After Dark mix) - 5:13
Please, Don't Leave Me (Instrumental Mystery Mix) - 5:16
The website
SecondHandSongs lists over 130 covers of "If You Leave Me Now" by recording artists from around the world between 1976 and 2020, among them:[63]
Boyz II Men recorded their version of "If You Leave Me Now" for their 2009 album Love. They also sang on a 2018 non-related
Charlie Puth song with the same title.[73]
Viola Wills released a disco version of "If You Leave Me Now" which was released as a single in 1981, with "I Can't Stay Away from You" on the B-side.[74] Her version was sampled by French electronic music duo
Daft Punk for the songs "Teachers" and "Fresh", which appear on their 1997 album
Homework.[75][76]
British
DJ, producer, songwriter and former member of the
Outlaw Posse,
K-Gee, together with
Michelle Escoffery performed a
hip hop version of "If You Leave Me Now" for K-Gee's 2002 album, Bounce to This. In 2000, K-Gee told Billboard writer Kwaku that he thought the chorus of "If You Leave Me Now" "'sounds phat.'"[78]
Live cover performances
Philip Bailey of
Earth, Wind & Fire sang the song during their joint concerts with Chicago in 2004-2006. This version was included in the Love Songs album by Chicago.[79] Philip Bailey also performed the song during the "Grammy Salute to Music Legends 2020" to honor Chicago who received the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award that year. The program premiered on
PBS on October 16, 2020.[80]
In other media
"If You Leave Me Now" is featured in the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto V (appearing on the in-game radio station Los Santos Rock Radio), and is also played when
Trevor Philips returns the kidnapped wife of a drug kingpin.[81][82]
The song is also featured in the episodes, "
Casa Bonita" and "
Awesom-O", of
South Park,[83] as well as "
Egg Drop", the 12th episode of the
third season of the
AmericansitcomModern Family.[84] The song was also featured in a scene on the British comedy horror film Shaun of the Dead where Shaun is still reeling from his breakup and Ed is trying to cheer him up.[85] In the early 2000's, the song was performed by the mascot "Sockpuppet" in a commercial for the now-defunct website
Pets.com.[86] "If You Leave Me Now" was part of the soundtrack for the 1999 film, Three Kings, which is set in
Iraq during the 1991
Gulf War. Desson Howe, reviewing the film for the Washington Post, notes how film director
David O. Russell cuts from the "frenzied din of confusion" outside a moving car in the scene to the interior of the car, where the "easy sounds" of the song are playing.[87] The song was also featured in the 2023 film The Flash, which is an installment in the
DC Extended Universe.
In the
HBO miniseries, "
The Regime", the dictator portrayed by
Kate Winslet sings a "cringy" rendition of "If You Leave Me Now" in the initial episode which first aired on March 3, 2024.[88][89] In an interview with Patrick Ryan of
USA Today, Winslet discussed the song selection: "It’s such a great metaphor... I thought that song choice was very much to do with her trying to express her gratitude for her loyal followers. It's a fantastic play on the world of ‘likes,’ and how she’s a leader by social media more than anything.” In the same article, series creator Will Tracey said the song was written into the very first draft, ' “I was trying to think of an American song that might’ve hit the airwaves in Europe when she was a kid: something seemingly innocuous and maudlin and soft rock. But I always felt there’s something in that rising hook in the melody; there’s a sadness contained in a lot of those seemingly vacuous radio ballads. So it seemed like the right song to mine for a ridiculous moment at the top of the show,” but one that also becomes “strangely poignant” by the series’ end.'[90]
^Cetera, Peter (September 28, 2015).
"Peter Cetera/September 28"(audio). Humble & Fred Radio.Com (Interview). Interviewed by Howard Glassman and Fred Patterson. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Humble and Fred Radio. Event occurs at 51:09. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
^Lederer, Barry (August 29, 1981).
"Disco Mix"(PDF). Billboard. Vol. 93, no. 34. USA: Leo Zhito. p. 61. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via AmericanRadioHistory.com.
^Kwaku (September 30, 2000).
"K-Gee's 'Care' Launches Instant Karma Label". Billboard. Vol. 112, no. 40. USA: Nielsen Business Media. p. 34. Retrieved May 4, 2019 – via The Internet Archive.
^"Love Songs". Billboard. February 5, 2005. p. 64 (Full page advertisement for album). Retrieved November 29, 2017.