• Writers: Steve Winwood and Will Jennings
• Producer: Steve Winwood
• Recorded: Early 1980 at Netherturkdonic Studios in England
• Released: December 1980
• Players: Steve Winwood — vocals, all instruments
• Album: Arc Of A Diver (Island, 1980)
• Also On:
  Chronicles (Island, 1987)
  The Finer Things (Island, 1995)
• “While You See A Chance” was Steve Winwood‘s first solo hit following the disbanding of Traffic in 1974.
• Winwood composed the music for the song, while collaborator Will Jennings wrote the lyrics.
• Winwood spent two years making the Arc Of A Diver album, on which he played all the instruments rather than use other musicians.
• Explaining the decision to go it totally alone, Winwood said, “I felt that my chance to bring into play everything I had learned throughout my career had finally come. I had regrouped, and I knew I had something to say… I felt as if I definitely had created a stamp by which to say who exactly Steve Winwood was and what he would be doing in the 1980s. That was very important to me.”

FAST FORWARD:

• Joe Cocker covered “While You See A Chance” on his 2000 album No Ordinary World.
• Winwood began using a band again on 1986’s Back In The High Life. With that album, he also began touring regularly.
• Winwood continued to have solo success throughout the ’80s, though that diminished in the ’90s. His most recent studio album is About Time, which came out in 2003. His next studio album, Nine Live, arrives April 29th.
• Winwood and Jim Capaldi reunited Traffic for an album and tour in 1994.
• Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2004. Winwood, Capaldi, and singer-guitarist Dave Mason were all on hand for the event.
• Capaldi died in January 2005. Winwood says he and Capaldi had an agreement to never use the name Traffic without the other one in the band, which means it’s permanently retired now.