After All

Album

Heart of Stone

Label

Geffen Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Duration

3:00

Composer(s)

Tom Snow;/Dean Pitchford

Entered Chart

Mar 11, 1989

Peak Date

May 13, 1989

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Geffen 7-27529

B-Side

Dangerous Times (Cher)

This was the theme song to the 1989 movie Chances Are, starring Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr. and Ryan O'Neal. The song was written by Dean Pitchford (lyrics) and Tom Snow (music), who couldn't use the title "Chances Are" because it is the name of a famous Johnny Mathis song. In our interview with Dean Pitchford, he explained: "The movie was about a woman who falls in love with a man only to lose him. He gets killed, and then his soul migrates into another body and comes back in a younger man. And that soul is trying to reunite with her, but inevitably she ends up with a man who has been staying by her side all her life, and has been there for her. And that's the soul match that was to have been made. So when she walks down the aisle at the end of the movie with Ryan O'Neal, it's the end of a long journey. So I wrote 'After all the stops and starts, we keep coming back to these two hearts. Two angels who've been rescued from the fall.' I thought that that was really the summation of the movie, because you get some scenes in Heaven, where the soul gets misassigned. And I always liked the idea of angels being rescued from the fall, and I also liked that 'fall' rhymed with 'all.' So I brought Tom the 'After All' concept of 'we keep coming back to these two hearts,' and that was the taking off point." Dean Pitchford had lots of success with movie soundtracks - he wrote the screenplay and all the songs for Footloose, including "Almost Paradise," another duet that like "After All" was a #1 Adult Contemporary hit. Some of the other songs Pitchford wrote with Tom Snow include "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" and "Let's Hear It For The Boy." In addition to the Chances Are soundtrack, this was released on Cher's album Heart of Stone and on Peter Cetera's album Connection. It was Cher's first #1 Adult Contemporary hit. In addition to writing this this song for Chances Are, Tom Snow also worked on the film's score, using variations on the main theme of this song in places.

Well, here we are again, I guess it must be fate
We've tried it on our own
But deep inside we've known
We'd be back to set things straight
I still remember when your kiss was so brand new
Every memory repeats
Every step I take retreats
Every journey always brings me back to you
After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who've been rescued from the fall
And after all that we've been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it's meant to be
Forever you and me, after all
When love is truly right, this time it's truly right
It lives from year to year, it changes as it goes
Oh and on the way it grows
But it never disappears
After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who've been rescued from the fall
And after all that we've been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it's meant to be
Forever you and me, after all
Always just beyond my touch
You know I needed you so much
After all, what else is livin' for?
Oh, after all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who've been rescued from the fall
And after all that we've been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it's meant to be
Forever you and me
After all the stops and starts
We keep coming back to these two hearts
Two angels who've been rescued from the fall
And after all that we've been through
It all comes down to me and you
I guess it's meant to be
Forever you and me, after all