So even though this is listed as my #2 New Years Song, I must confess that it is really my favorite.  Dan is one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time and Same Auld Lang Syne is as close to a perfect song as you will ever find.  Let’s listen….

I was lucky enough to see Dan perform live many time in the 1970s and 1980s and from his between song banter during those shows I knew that this song was based on something that really happened to him but I didn’t know the details.  A blog post by Annie Zaleski that was published after Dan’s death fills in some of those details.

“Same Old Lang Syne was written about an old girlfriend of his who now lives in St. Louis. The Peoria Journal Star printed a nice article which included an interview with Jill Greulich and her chance encounter with Fogelberg in a grocery store, long after they stopped dating.”

After graduating college, Jill relocated to the Chicago area, where she worked as an elementary teacher and flight attendant. Not long after college, she married a man from that area, and her connection to Fogelberg faded to memories.

But on Christmas Eve 1975, Jill and her husband visited her parents, who still lived in the Woodruff district. Also at the home were some friends of the family.

During the gathering, Jill’s mother asked her to run out for egg nog. Jill drove off in search of an open store.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, a similar scenario was playing out at the Fogelberg home, where Dan Fogelberg was visiting family for the holiday. They needed whipping cream to make Irish coffees, so Fogelberg volunteered to go search for some.

By happenstance and because almost every other business on the East Bluff was closed, Jill and Fogelberg both ended up at the Convenient store at the top of Abington Hill, at Frye Avenue and Prospect Road. She got there first, and Fogelberg noticed her shortly after arriving.

They bought a six pack, sipped beer in her car and gabbed away. “We had some laughs,” Jill recalls.

Our 2012 end of the year music review concludes today with the Best Album award.  I identified my top ten albums for 2012 in yesterday’s post.  If you missed that post, now would be a good time to read it before I announce my pick.   Go ahead……I’ll wait.

Ok, here we go……the best album for 2012, by a landslide, is Wrecking Ball by Bruce Springsteen.  Bruce captures the United States of 2012 and in the process shows that he is still growing as a songwriter and performer.  To make that last point, checkout Rocky Ground where Bruce manages to combine great lyric with a performance that includes elements of hip hop and Gospel.  I am not a hip hop fan at all but Bruce manages to use it in a context where even I like it.  Let’s listen to a live performance of Rocky Ground from South by Southwest this year……..

It’s a great album…..buy it if you don’t already have it.