First Single “Reason To Believe” by Bill Champlin (Chicago) Drops January 1, 2021
Legendary Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Bill Champlin has signed a record deal with Imagen Records. Bill’s first single, “Reason To Believe,” is due out on January 1, 2021. The single is off of his new record Livin’ For Love that will release early in the new year.
“Hey everyone, this is Bill Champlin. I just wanted to letcha’ know that my new album Lookin’ For Love has got a new home. Bob Winegard, at Imagen Records, loved the music and we’ve decided to work together on the Digital Release of the new album. We’re both hard at work coming up with ways for people to know that it’ll be available in the usual places: Spotify, I-tunes, etc etc. Bob has Steve Nathan working on opening up my visibility factor. I’m very happy that Bob’s team is “Taking the bull by the horns” and working on getting this record heard. Imagen has great world wide distribution in place and I’m sure it’s gonna’ be a good thing. My wife Tamara and I will be simultaneously releasing CD versions at billchamplin.com/shop. I know some of my friends really like CD’s with info about the songs in the booklet. I’m sure we’ll be putting a link out that you can use to get lyrics and credits if you just do a digital thing. Now, the music. Many of you have heard my stuff over the years and may think you know what this one sounds like. I think it’s the best album I’ve ever made and anyone who’s heard it agrees. Imagen Records will be releasing a single, right around New Year’s Day, so you can get an idea what “Livin’ for Love” is about. A lotta’ good songs and great playing. Anyway, I digress; I want to say how proud I am to be doing this with Bob Winegard and his whole team on Imagen Records. Onward and Upward. Be safe, Be good, Be Baaaaaaad.”
“As a long time fan of Chicago, I am huge fan of Bill’s voice and songwriting. We are so honored to be working with Bill and absolutely love his new music” says Bob Winegard, President of Imagen Records.
Bill Champlin started his career very early on in Marin County, CA. In 1965, his band “Sons Of Champlin” released a single on Verve Records and got a little AM radio play. The band then recorded a double album in 1968, Loosen Up Naturally, that got more than local notice but little “Top 40” airplay. Over the next 10 years the Sons released a total of 8 records on 3 different labels, but still not a lot of “Top 40” play. The band, and Bill in particular, got a lot of notice from industry people and, for sure, other musicians across the country. After the Loving Is Why album Bill left the Sons and moved to LA and started working on 2 solo albums, as well as various studio background vocal dates. His two solo albums Single and Runaway were produced by David Foster, who has proven to be a major league player/writer/arranger/producer over the years. One of the songs written for Single was covered by Earth, Wind. and Fire. The single “After the Love has Gone” became a big hit for EWF and Bill replaced the song on the Single album with something else after EWF cut it.
Two years later, Jay Graydon and Steve Lukather called Bill in to co-write “Turn Your Love Around,” which Bill did along with backgrounds on the song for George Benson. It was a big #1 hit for George. Bill, Foster and Graydon wrote “Friends in Love” for Dionne Warwick and Johnny Mathis, as well as “Smile Again” for Manhattan Transfer. Bill was also a co-writer for Lee Ritenour’s “Is It You” and was on backing vocals for it as well.
As a singer and ensemble arranger he was on numerous hits which included “Little Jeannie” by Elton John, as well as a lot of Donna Summer songs. Bill and Chicago cohort, Jason Scheff, did pretty much the whole chorus of “20 Years Ago” for Kenny Rogers. Bill has arranged and sung background vocals for numerous artists that we’ve all heard, as well as some TV and movie vocals. The TV show “In the Heat of the Night” had Bill on the theme and is still playing regularly in living rooms all over the world. Bill was also a member of the musical group “Chicago” and sang on numerous hits like: “Hard Habit to Break”, “I Don’t Want to Live Without your Love” and one of the band’s bigger radio hits, “Look Away”. He was with the band for 28 years but still made CD’s during that time, which were mostly released in Japan, Scandinavia, Europe etc. Through it All, He Started to Sing, Mayday and No Place Left to Fall were all well received CD’s.
Bill has just finished his first solo album in almost 10 years and is very excited about this music. The title of the album is Livin’ For Love. He’s inked a deal with Bob Winegard’s Imagen Records, who will be in charge of digital sales. Bill will also have CD’s available for mail order at www.billchamplin.com/shop. According to Bill and some of the awesome players on the album, they all think that this music is as good as it gets. If you think you know what this album sounds like based on past albums you’ve heard of Bill’s, you’re wrong. This thing is really raising the bar for any singer/player/
