written by Peter Cetera and Mark Goldenberg

produced by Michael Omartian

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It’s now June 21st, 2021 as I’m making this page, which means this

year in America, Father’s Day was yesterday. Time got away before I

could make the pages for all the Dad-celebrating songs I could think

of, but that’s all right; one-seventh of all Father’s Days have also

fallen on June 21st, so consider the holiday simply held over.

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Chicago bassist and singer Peter Cetera had released one solo album in 1981, which didn’t make much of a splash, but he still had Chicago to “fall back” on, so to speak. In 1985, he made a bolder move and left the band to strike out on his own. This time, with more hit power under his belt, he released the far more successful sophomore album Solitude/Solitaire in the summer of 1986—June 23rd, as a matter of fact; look how close the making of this page comes to the 35th anniversary of the album’s release!

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Solitude/Solitaire spawned four singles, including the monster #1s “Glory Of Love”—one of the few hit songs known as an ingredient of a giant motion picture’s sequel: The Karate Kid Part II—and Peter’s duet with the not yet widely known Amy Grant, “The Next Time I Fall.” “Next Time” is my personal favorite solo Cetera song, but the song on this page is a different, non-single number from the album.

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After being released, “Daddy’s Girl” was first featured the year after in the Ted Danson/Tom Selleck/

Steve Guttenberg film Three Men And A Baby, which was where I first heard it. Pretty on the nose, and yet appropriately and comfortably so. So Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there—and a special shout-out to one of the original old-school Daddy’s girls, Sonora Louise Smart-Dodd, who is credited with founding Father’s Day. After Anna Jarvis came up with Mother’s Day, Sonora, whose father meant a great deal to her, felt Dads too needed their day of recognition. She originally wanted it to be her father William Jackson’s birthday, June 5th, though the Spokane Ministerial Alliance, to whom she came with the holiday, felt June’s third Sunday was more suitable. And so the very first celebrated Father’s Day was Sunday, June 19th, 1910. That’s now 112 official Father’s Days having taken place as of this writing. 

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

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Peter’s official website