This article first came out a year ago but the PJ Star has reprinted it.

The link has 20+ photos of Dan performing, none of his former girlfriend.

https://www.pjstar.com/story/e...ang-syne/6494479002/

The story behind Dan Fogelberg and his holiday hit 'Same Old Lang Syne'

Phil Luciano
Journal Star
Dec 14, 2020

What's the backstory behind Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne"?

After the Peoria native released the single in late 1980, within months it rose to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, the song's Christmas Eve setting has made it a yuletide radio staple.

Meantime, in recent years, the tune has enjoyed more attention, in large part because of the unveiling of the mystery behind the bittersweet run-in between two old flames.

Is “Same Old Lang Syne” a true story?

Yes.

In 1975, Dan Fogelberg returned to his parents’ home in Peoria for Christmas Eve. To make Irish coffees, Fogelberg went out to buy whipping cream.

Meantime, his high school sweetheart, Jill Anderson, also had returned home to visit relatives. At the request of her mother, she headed out to buy eggnog.

With almost no stores open that night, both happened to arrive around the same time at a convenience store. After running into each other inside, they split a six-pack in her car while getting caught up on each others’ lives, then went their separate ways. Five years later, the serendipitous meeting was recounted in “Same Old Lang Syne.”

Who is the woman in 'Same Old Lang Syne?'

She is the former Jill Anderson, whom Dan Fogelberg first met as a teen in their native Peoria.

Sweethearts from the Woodruff High School Class of 1969, the two would end up going their own ways a few years later – he out West to start a music career, she to Chicago to teach schoolchildren. But on Christmas Eve 1975, as each left family gatherings in Peoria in search of last-minute supplies, they had a serendipitous encounter at a grocery store. Five years later, their meet-up provided the storyline for “Same Old Lang Syne,” though her identity remained a mystery for many years.

She is now known as Jill Greulich and lives in St. Louis. Upon the 40th anniversary of the song's release, she said, “I am so glad that Dan was a part of my life!”

Where is the parking lot in Peoria where they met?

By chance, they met inside a Convenient Food Mart at the top of the Abington Street Hill, at the intersection of Prospect Road. On Christmas Eve 1975, it was pretty much the only store open in that part of Peoria.

After Dan Fogelberg bought whipping cream and Jill Anderson bought eggnog, they decided to split a six-pack: Olympia, which at the time was being plugged by a national-TV commercial touting, “It’s the water.” They drank the beer outside, in the parking lot.

The Convenient chain abandoned that site long ago. However, over the years, the building has hosted a series of privately owned convenience stores, including one such current proprietorship.

In 2008, the City of Peoria gave Abington Street the honorary designation of Fogelberg Parkway.

How did Dan Fogelberg die?

In 2004, Dan Fogelberg was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent therapy. His cancer went into remission but later returned. On Dec. 16, 2007, he died at age 56 at his home on Deer Isle, Maine. His ashes were scattered off coastal Maine, into the Atlantic Ocean.

His widow, Jean Fogelberg, has urged fans to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which raises money for research.

Was Dan Fogelberg's father a musician?

A native of Chicago, Lawrence Fogelberg eventually moved to Peoria, where he and wife Margaret raised three sons, including Dan Fogelberg.

Lawrence Fogelberg directed the Woodruff High School band (1945-1955) and the Pekin High School band (1956-1976). He served as band director for Bradley University football and basketball games during the 1950s, and he later conducted the Pekin Municipal Band.

Dan Fogelberg’s 1981 album “The Innocent Age” included “Leader of the Band,” inspired by his father. In March 1982, the song reached No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and reached No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, Fogelberg’s second single to hit the top, following 1980’s “Longer.”

During the song’s initial popularity, a multitude of media interviews turned Lawrence Fogelberg into a celebrity before he died at age 71 on Aug. 5, 1982.

Sad song - The song is fairly accurate with two exceptions: her eyes are green (not blue), and her husband was a PE teacher (not an architect). The very personal line in the song (“She would have liked to say she loved the man, but she didn’t like to lie.”) foreshadowed Greulich’s divorce from the PE teacher, before the song came out. Greulich noted, “Somebody said he waited until I was divorced to release the song, but I don’t know if that’s true.” Later in 1980, Greulich married her second husband, Jim Greulich, and the couple moved to St. Louis, where she teaches second grade at a local elementary school.

I really enjoy that song. Now it will have a special meaning. I think many of us would like to meet up with an old flame in that way.

I was a big fan of Fogelberg's music of the 70's, not so much his pop era. Sad to see him gone though.

The wife and I have always been big fans and miss him.

Every Christmas eve, I email that song out to my classmates. I live near Peoria and have been to that convenience store. I think it is referred to as the Dan Fogelberg store.

For a long time, I thought it was about a grocery store in Champaign as he had gone to school there.

I really like the song.

Funny that you posted this, OP, as I heard the song on the radio the other day and went and looked up the original printed story of the song's origins.
Two questions I had on this song from years ago: one, the statement she makes about essentially not loving her husband, which confirmation appears to at least inferred in her unwillingness to reply; and two, the snow turned into rain, which I always interpreted as a symbolic representation of his rising melancholy after (re)losing his HS love again. But that one isn't answered very precisely, is it?

I heard this song for the first time maybe 3 Christmases ago.
I remember listening and trying to figure out what I was actually listening too. Then thinking that this had to be some sort of parody.
Nope. It is kind of catchy though.