The Story Behind "Same Old Lang Syne"

Dan Fogleberg's song “Same Old Lang Syne” (see the post below) is a haunting tribute to lost love. I seems that it is also based on a true story.

Christmas Eve 1975, while home visiting family for the holidays, Dan went out in search of whipped cream for Irish coffee and ran into his high school sweetheart, Jill Anderson, who was likewise home for the holidays and on a mission to find an open store to purchase egg nog for her mom. After graduating from high school in 1969 the two had gone to different colleges. Lo, they ran into each other at a convenience store, bought a six pack and sat in the car to catch up and reminisce. The only artistic liberty Dan took with the song was changing Jill's green eyes to blue since it would rhyme better and changing the occupation of her husband (who kept her warm and safe and dry) from PE teacher to architect. Jill will not reveal whether she told Dan that "she would have liked to say she loved the man, but she didn’t like to lie.” God bless her, she says, “I think that’s probably too personal.” She was divorced from that husband by the time the song was released in 1980. After Fogelberg's death Jill revealed that she was the girl in the song, remaining quiet until now because she knew Fogelberg was such a private person.

Cool song, cool time, cool story, and the snow really did turn into rain...

Thanks to my friend, Dan Hardison, who sent me a copy of  Phil Luciano's story for Gatehouse News Service.