Background and Writing
"Taking Chances" was written by songwriter Kara DioGuardi and former Eurythmic Dave Stewart. The record label manager Jimmy Iovine put them together to write for the Pussycat Dolls, but DioGuardi and Stewart quickly realized that the music they were writing was best suited for them to record together. Iovine agreed and signed them to Interscope Records where they recorded an album as Platinum Weird, but the album was never released. In The Dave Stewart Songbook Vol. 1, Stewart explains that he and DioGuardi wrote the song in about 10 minutes one afternoon when movers were bringing furniture into her new Los Angeles home.
"I could hear some windchimes just outside the open window where I was laying, so I picked up an acoustic guitar and was trying to play the same random pattern the chimes were making. Kara is a genius with melody and multitasking so as she's shouting to the movers she starts singing, 'Don't know much about your life,' much to the confusion of the workers. It was like a scene from a musical as the furniture was piling in, she was singing, 'What do you say to taking chances? What do you you say to jumping off the edge?' We literally were swapping lyrics, melodies and chords in real time while all this chaos was around us. The song was written about ourselves trusting and baring our souls to each other. About committing to making something special even though we knew we were this odd couple who had no other reason to do it other than we loved it."
After DioGuardi and Stewart recorded the song, they played it for Dion's husband René, who loved it. Dion released it as the title track and first single from her ninth English studio album, which was also the name of her World Tour. John Shanks produced the song. He also produced five other songs on Taking Chances. Kara DioGuardi also wrote and co-produced with Emanuel Kiriakou "Surprise Surprise" for the Taking Chances album. She has already written few songs for Céline Dion in the past, including "One Heart." The latter was co-written and co-produced by John Shanks and Kara DioGuardi, and released as a single in 2003.
On September 9, 2007, the members of her fan club had a 24-hour advance preview of "Taking Chances" and its accompanying in-studio video. Later, the video was available through Amazon.com and Sympatico / MSN Music Store the following day. The song premiered on the radio on September 10, 2007 and was released as a music download on October 29, 2007 in the United States and Europe. The track was included later on her 2008 greatest hits My Love: Essential Collection. A live version was included in the Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert CD/DVD.
Read more about this topic: Taking Chances (song)
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