Rest in Peace Dan Fogelberg

I just heard the news that Dan Fogelberg has passed away after his battle with cancer on December 16th. Until now I had believed that Mr. Fogelberg was from my home state of Kentucky. Partly because someone told me this years ago and the rest was based on his song "Run For the Roses" which was about the Kentucky Derby. Now I have found out that he was born August 13 1951 in Peoria, Illinois. In an interview that I just read on line he said that he was hired by the Kentucky Derby to write the song "Run For the Roses." No matter where he was from I liked his music.
I always associate the music of Dan Fogelberg with my days in college. It was in late 1979 or early 1980 when I first heard of him. Two songs of his were bigs hits from his Phoenix album. They were "Longer", which is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, and "Heart Hotel." I remember hearing the song "Heart Hotel" on the radio all the time. There was a phrase that I never quite understood in the song. It was while listening to it on the radio as I was driving home from my part-time job that I decided to make up my own lyric that, to me, sounded like what he was singing. The line as I sang it was "echoes of promises kept." Later, I was talking to my cousin Steve on the phone. He liked the song as much as I did and I asked him what he was saying at that part. He told me the real lyric was "Nobody living inside." When I told him I heard it as "echoes of promises kept" he liked it and asked if he might use the phrase sometime in something he wrote. I of course said it was ok with me.
For four years I kept hearing the songs of Dan Fogelberg coming from my radio. Like the "Power of Gold" from his album Twin Sons of Different Mothers with Tim Weisberg which was the only hit off of that album. That song came out around the time that John Stewart had a hit with "Gold" and I wondered if they had planned it as an answer to each others song. It is around this time of year that radio stations play his hit "Same Old Lang Syne." It will be even more sad to hear it this year with his passing. I once read that the song was based on a true story of his accidental meeting with an old girlfriend. "Leader Of The Band" is a song that he wrote about his Father. From what I have read his Father got a lot of attention and interviews from the media about this and Dan was a little surprise that the song became a hit. Two more hits of his that I loved to hear were "Make Love Stay" and "Part of the Plan." With all of this success in music it is sad to note that he never had a #1 hit on the Billboard charts. Why that is I don't know. I can't even tell you why the only album I ever bought was his greatest hits album. I had hopes for a second volume but that never came to pass. While he and his music will be missed, I don't think the industry ever fully appreciated his music or his talent. He was one of the few who successfully blended folk, country, pop and jazz to have a long career in music. I have heard that in his battle with cancer his strength, dignity and grace inspired all who knew him. Rest in Peace Dan Fogelberg.