B major · Camelot 1B · 74 BPM
You're the Inspiration
by Chicago
- 74
- BPM
- B major
- Key
- 1B
- Camelot
- 59
- Danceability
- 37
- Acousticness
David Foster drove to Peter Cetera's house one morning in 1984 with an urgent request: Kenny Rogers wanted a song, and he wanted it now. Cetera was packing for a two-week trip to Italy and had intended to write the song after his return, but there was no delaying it. In about three hours the two came up with a chordal structure for what would become "You're the Inspiration," though it carried no title at that point. Cetera made a tape of the chords and took it on the plane. In Italy, singing in baroque and marble rooms, he worked out lyrics and hit on the line that gave the song its name. Rogers never recorded it. Cetera changed some of the words and brought the song to Chicago instead.
Recorded for the band's fourteenth studio album, Chicago 17, the song featured Cetera on lead vocals and came out as the album's third single. It reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 1985 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart simultaneously. The writers received an ASCAP honor in 1986 in the most-performed songs category.
The music video cut between the band performing and scenes of embracing couples of different ages, among them a pair resembling Billy Idol and Madonna. Cetera wore a Bauhaus T-shirt and sat for the entire performance, strumming a bass flipped upside down. He re-recorded the song in 1997 for his solo album You're the Inspiration: A Collection and also cut a single version that year with the R&B vocal group Az Yet.
You're the Inspiration runs at 74 BPM, the tempo of soul, trip-hop and half-time hip-hop. In classical terms it sits in largo territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 3.24 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 811 ms. It is in B major, Camelot 1B, which shares its notes with Ab minor and mixes cleanly with E major and F# major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.