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Chicago

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Pop/rock, jazz group

With distinctly midwestern roots and a distinctive big-band sound, Chicago took the pop music world by surprise in the 1970s with their jazzy, full instrumental arrangements. Though they were often compared with another big-band-sounding pop group, Blood, Sweat and Tears, member Robert Lamm points out one of their differences by saying, "Our roots are basically rock, but we can and do play jazz; Blood, Sweat and Tears is basically a jazz-rooted combo that can play a lot of rock."

Originally called the Big Thing, a phrase Lamm said "Mafia types" used to describe the band’s unique music, the group later changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority, then, after their first album, simply Chicago. The musical diversity in the group was astounding from the beginning, with only two of the original six members (Robert Lamm, James Pankow, Danny Seraphine, Terry Kath, Walt Parazaider, and Lee Loughnane, with the addition of Peter Cetera in the late sixties, and, in 1974, percussionist Laudir De Oliverira) being self-taught, and the rest having considerable

formal training. The group boasted competent musicians not only on drums or guitar, but also on clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and piano. The group’s impressive blend of jazz and rock elements and improvisational energy attracted a varied audience.

Before gaining national popularity, the band played at a number of rock clubs in the Los Angeles Sunset Strip district, eventually receiving a small following and favorable reviews from underground papers. They stepped into the spotlight with Chicago Transit Authority in 1969, an album that slowly made its way onto the charts to stay there well into 1971. Lamm’s pop ballad "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," became a hit single in 1969 and remains one of the group’s most popular songs. A series of hit singles, including "Make Me Smile" and the curiously titled "25 or 6 to 4" followed the release of the group’s second album, Chicago, in 1970. The disc also contained one of the first of many unusual tracks, a six-movement rock composition entitled "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon."

More orchestral work was to follow in the band’s third LP (a two-record set) with multiple-movement suites "Hour in the Shower" and the entire-side-long "Travel Suite." Another two-record set came in the form of a live album, Chicago at Carnegie Hall, released in 1971. According to Rolling Stone, the latter was "probably the worst live album in history." Released against Chicago’s wishes, the band blamed their sloppy performance on the constant interference of the record’s producer on stage. Said Pankow, "The horns on that record sound like kazoos…. How can you play? Every two seconds a curve was being thrown to everyone onstage." Nevertheless, the set rose swiftly into the top ten.

Subsequent albums were released almost every year, with two released in a single year on more than one occasion, and all were certified gold. Top-selling singles rose out of almost every album and included such songs as "Saturday in the Park" in 1972 and "Feelin’ Stronger Everyday" in 1973. The group was immensely popular in concert as well, including a number of college and university campuses among as many as 200 concerts a year. The group also traveled to Europe and were extremely well-received in Scandinavia, belying any suggestion that their brand of jazzy pop was only a U.S. phenomenon. Their 1976 Chicago X album garnered three Grammys, with the single "If You Leave Me Now" recognized for both best arrangement and best pop vocal performance by a duo or group for the year.

Despite the overwhelming success enjoyed by the band, Rock Who’s Who maintains they were "a big-band rock group that initially utilized jazz-style improvisations," later degenerating into "a pop group of huge popularity, issuing album after album of formulaic, predictable, middle-of-the-road fare." Again, the group members found fault with their producer and what they interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm. "It took so long to do things" Parazaider told Rolling Stone. "That’s when it becomes like a factory gig, then you’re just pumping it out." The band began coproducing their albums, then, finally, began coming in after-hours to record alone. "With [producer] Jimmy [Guercio] everything had to be technically correct," adds Seraphine. "Sometimes he would lose some of the magic because he was so meticulous." Eventually, toward the later seventies, the group’s popularity seemed to fade, their vitality weakened by the tragic death of Terry Kath in 1978 and their previous cessation of ties to longtime producer/manager Guercio. This low point was not to last long.

Finding new confidence and enthusiasm in guitarist Donnie Dacus and co-producer Phil Ramone, the band turned out one of their finest albums, Hot Streets, in 1978. Instead of perfection, Ramone emphasized the group’s natural sound, drawing on the excitement of an essentially "live" recording. Strong tracks from the album included the Bee Gees-backed "Little Miss Loving" and the chart-topping "Alive Again," which People described as exploding "with an awesome blend of power and finesse." Addressing the longstanding problem of the band having a recognizable "logo" but not "ego," the members were photographed on their album’s cover for the first time. Newly focused and pushing foward as professional musicians concerned with the vitality of their music and its potential impact on future generations, the group did indeed appear to be "alive again."

After the release of Chicago 17, however, longtime member Peter Cetera left the group to pursue a solo career. His departure appeared to have little effect on the group, whose "corporate, or maybe it’s municipal, kind of sound" (as reproduced on Chicago 18) remained unchanged. Still, People noted the album included a remake of the early hit "25 or 6 to 4," suggesting a certain desperation for hits that would lead them to "resuscitate its old ones." Despite such criticism, though, the LP found favor as "basic, hard-core Chicago, which history has shown to be a lot of people’s kind of music."

Selected discography

As Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, Columbia, 1969, reissued, 1989.

As Chicago
Chicago, Columbia, 1970.
Chicago III, Columbia, 1971.
Live at Carnegie Hall, Columbia, 1971.
Chicago V, Columbia, 1972.
Chicago VI, Columbia, 1973.
Chicago VII, Columbia, 1974.
Chicago VIII, Columbia, 1975.
Chicago IX—Chicago’s Greatest Hits, Columbia, 1975.
Chicago X, Columbia, 1976.
Chicago XI, Columbia, 1977.
Hot Streets, Columbia, 1978.
Chicago XIII, Columbia, 1979.
Chicago XIV, Columbia, 1980.
Chicago’s Greatest Hits, Vol 2, Columbia, 1981.
Chicago XVI, Full Moon, 1984.
Chicago 17, Full Moon, 1984.
Chicago 18, Warner Bros., 1986.
Chicago 19, Reprise, 1988.

Sources
Books
Helander, Brock, Rock Who’s Who, Schirmer, 1982.
Nite, Norm N., Rock On, Volume 2, Harper, 1984.
Stambler, Irwin, Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock, and Soul, St. Martin’s, 1977.

Periodicals
People, October 16, 1978; November 17, 1986; February 2, 1987.
Rolling Stone, December 14, 1978.
Time, June 2, 1975.
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:

Chicago

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  • Genres: Rock

Biography

According to Billboard chart statistics, Chicago is second only to the Beach Boys as the most successful American rock band of all time, in terms of both albums and singles. Judged by album sales, as certified by the R.I.A.A., the band does not rank quite so high, but it is still among the Top Ten best-selling U.S. groups ever. If such statements of fact surprise, that's because Chicago has been singularly underrated since the beginning of its long career, both because of its musical ambitions (to the musicians, rock is only one of several styles of music to be used and blended, along with classical, jazz, R&B, and pop) and because of its refusal to emphasize celebrity over the music. The result has been that fundamentalist rock critics have consistently failed to appreciate its music and that its media profile has always been low. At the same time, however, Chicago has succeeded in the ways it intended to. From the beginning of its emergence as a national act, it has been able to fill arenas with satisfied fans. And beyond the impressive sales and chart statistics, its music has endured, played constantly on the radio and instantly familiar to tens of millions. When, in 2002, Chicago's biggest hits were assembled together on the two-disc set The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning and the album debuted in the Top 50, giving the band the distinction of having had chart albums in five consecutive decades, the music industry and some music journalists may have been startled. But the fans who had been supporting Chicago for over 30 years were not.

Chicago marked the confluence of two distinct, but intermingling musical strains in Chicago, IL, in the mid-'60s: an academic approach and one coming from the streets. Reed player Walter Parazaider (born March 14, 1945, in Chicago, IL), trumpeter Lee Loughnane (born October 21, 1946, in Chicago, IL), and trombonist James Pankow (born August 20, 1947, in St. Louis, MO) were all music students at DePaul University. But they moonlighted in the city's clubs, playing everything from R&B to Irish music, and there they encountered less formally educated but no less talented players like guitarist Terry Kath (born January 31, 1946, in Chicago, IL; died January 23, 1978, in Los Angeles, CA) and drummer Danny Seraphine (born August 28, 1948, in Chicago, IL). In the mid-'60s, most rock groups followed the instrumentation of the Beatles -- two guitars, bass, and drums -- and horn sections were heard only in R&B. But in the summer of 1966, the Beatles used horns on "Got to Get You into My Life" on their Revolver album and, as usual, pop music began to follow their lead. At the end of the year, the Buckinghams, a Chicago band guided by a friend of Parazaider's, James William Guercio, scored a national hit with the horn-filled "Kind of a Drag," which went on to hit number one in February 1967.

That was all the encouragement Parazaider and his friends needed. Parazaider called a meeting of the band-to-be at his apartment on February 15, 1967, inviting along a talented organist and singer he had run across, Robert Lamm (born October 13, 1944, in New York, NY [Brooklyn]). Lamm agreed to join and also said he could supply the missing bass sounds to the ensemble using the organ's foot pedals (a skill he had not actually acquired at the time).

Developing a repertoire of James Brown and Wilson Pickett material, the new band rehearsed in Parazaider's parents' basement before beginning to get gigs around town under the name the Big Thing. Soon, they were playing around the Midwest. By this time, Guercio had become a staff producer at Columbia Records, and he encouraged the band to begin developing original songs. Kath, and especially Lamm, took up the suggestion. (Soon, Pankow also became a major writer for the band.) Meanwhile, the sextet became a septet when Peter Cetera (born September 13, 1944, in Chicago, IL), singer and bassist for a rival Midwest band, the Exceptions, agreed to defect and join the Big Thing. This gave the group the unusual versatility of having three lead singers, the smooth baritone Lamm, the gruff baritone Kath, and Cetera, who was an elastic tenor. When Guercio came back to see the group in the late winter of 1968, he deemed them ready for the next step. In June 1968, he financed their move to Los Angeles.

Guercio exerted a powerful influence on the band as its manager and producer, which would become a problem over time. At first, the bandmembers were willing to live together in a two-bedroom house, practice all the time, and change the group's name to one of Guercio's choosing, Chicago Transit Authority. Guercio's growing power at Columbia Records enabled him to get the band signed there and to set in place the unusual image the band would have. He convinced the label to let this neophyte band release a double album as its debut (that is, when they agreed to a cut in their royalties), and he decided the group would be represented on the cover by a logo instead of a photograph.

Chicago Transit Authority, released in April 1969, debuted on the charts in May as the band began touring nationally. By July, the album had reached the Top 20, without benefit of a hit single. It had been taken up by the free-form FM rock stations and become an underground hit. It was certified gold by the end of the year and eventually went on to sell more than two million copies. (In September 1969, the band played the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Festival, and somehow the promoter obtained the right to tape the show. That same low-fidelity tape has turned up in an endless series of albums ever since. Examples include: Anthology, Beat the Bootleggers: Live 1967, Beginnings, Beginnings Live, Chicago [Classic World], Chicago Live, Chicago Transit Authority: Live in Concert [Magnum], Chicago Transit Authority: Live in Concert [Onyx], Great Chicago in Concert, I'm a Man, In Concert [Digmode], In Concert [Pilz], Live! [Columbia River], Live [LaserLight], Live Chicago, Live in Concert, Live in Toronto, Live '69, Live 25 or 6 to 4, The Masters, Rock in Toronto, and Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival.) To Guercio's surprise, he was contacted by the real Chicago Transit Authority, which objected to the band's use of the name; he responded by shortening the name to simply "Chicago." When he and the group finished the second album (another double) for release at the start of 1970, it was called Chicago, though it has since become known as Chicago II.

Chicago II vaulted into the Top Ten in its second week on the Billboard chart, even before its first single, "Make Me Smile," hit the Hot 100. The single was an excerpt from a musical suite, and the band at first objected to the editing considered necessary to prepare it for AM radio play. But it went on to reach the Top Ten, as did its successor, "25 or 6 to 4." The album quickly went gold and eventually platinum. In the fall of 1970, Columbia Records released "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," drawn from the group's first album, as its next single; it gave them their third consecutive Top Ten hit.

Chicago III, another double album, was ready for release at the start of 1971, and it just missed hitting number one while giving the band a third gold (and later platinum) LP. Its singles did not reach the Top Ten, however, and Columbia again reached back, releasing "Beginnings" (from the first album) backed with "Colour My World" (from the second) to give Chicago its fourth Top Ten single. Next up was a live album, the four-disc box set Chicago at Carnegie Hall, which, despite its size, crested in the Top Five and sold over a million copies. (The band itself preferred Live in Japan, an album recorded in February 1972 and initially released only in Japan.) Chicago V, a one-LP set, released in July 1972, spent nine weeks at number one on its way to selling over two million copies, spurred by its gold-selling Top Ten hit "Saturday in the Park." Chicago VI followed a year later and repeated the same success, launching the Top Ten singles "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" and "Just You 'n' Me."

The next Top Ten hit, "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long," was released in advance of Chicago VII in the late winter of 1974. The album was the band's third consecutive chart-topper and another million-seller. "Call on Me" became its second Top Ten single. Chicago VIII, which marked the promotion of sideman percussionist Laudir de Oliveira as a full-fledged bandmember, appeared in the spring of 1975, spawned the Top Ten hit "Old Days," and became the band's fourth consecutive number one LP. After the profit-taking Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits in the fall of 1975 came Chicago X, which missed hitting number one but eventually sold over two million copies, in part because of the inclusion of the Grammy-winning number one single "If You Leave Me Now." Chicago XI, released in the late summer of 1977, continued the seemingly endless string of success, reaching the Top Ten, selling a million copies, and generating the Top Five hit "Baby, What a Big Surprise."

But there was trouble beneath the surface. The band's big hits were starting to be solely ballads sung by Cetera, which frustrated the musicians' musical ambitions. They had failed to attract critical notice, and what press attention they were given often alluded to Guercio's Svengali-like control as manager and producer. Chicago determined to fire Guercio and demonstrate that they could succeed without him. Shortly afterward, they were struck by a crushing blow. Kath, a gun enthusiast, accidentally shot and killed himself on January 23, 1978. Though he, like most of the other members of the band, was not readily recognizable outside the group, he had actually had a large say in its direction, and his loss was incalculable. Nevertheless, the band closed ranks and went on.

Guitarist Donnie Dacus was chosen from auditions and joined the band in time for its 12th LP release, which was given a non-numerical title, Hot Streets, and which put prominent pictures of the bandmembers on the cover for the first time. The sound, as indicated by the first single, the Top 20 hit "Alive Again," was harder rock, and the band's core following responded, but Hot Streets was Chicago's first album since 1969 to miss the Top Ten. Chicago 13 then missed the Top 20. (At this point, Dacus left the band, and Chicago hired guitarist Chris Pinnick as a sideman, eventually upping him to full-fledged group-member status.) Released in 1980, Chicago XIV, the last album to feature de Oliveira, didn't go gold. By 1981, with the release of the 15th album, the poor-selling Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, the band parted ways with Columbia Records and began looking for a new approach.

They found it in writer/producer David Foster, who returned to an emphasis on the band's talent for power ballads as sung by Cetera. They also brought in one of Foster's favorite session musicians, Bill Champlin (born May 21, 1947, in Oakland, CA), as a full-fledged bandmember. Champlin, formerly the leader of the Sons of Champlin, was a multi-instrumentalist with a gruff voice that allowed him to sing the parts previously taken by Kath. With these additions, the band signed with Full Moon Records, an imprint of Warner Bros., and released Chicago 16 in the spring of 1982, prefaced by the single "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," which topped the charts, leading to a major comeback. The album returned Chicago to million-selling, Top Ten status. Chicago 17, released in the spring of 1984, was even more successful -- in fact, the biggest-selling album of the band's career, with platinum certifications for six million copies as of 1997. It spawned two Top Five hits, "Hard Habit to Break" and "You're the Inspiration."

The renewed success, however, changed the long-established group dynamics, thrusting Cetera out as a star. He left the band for a solo career in 1985. (Pinnick also left at about this time, and the band did not immediately bring in a new guitarist.) As Cetera's replacement, Chicago found Jason Scheff, the 23-year-old bass-playing son of famed bassist Jerry Scheff, a longtime sideman with Elvis Presley. Scheff boasted a tenor voice that allowed him to re-create Cetera's singing on many Chicago hits. The split with Cetera had a negative commercial impact, however. Despite boasting a Top Five hit single in "Will You Still Love Me?," 1986's Chicago 18 only went gold. The band recovered, however, with Chicago 19, released in the spring of 1988. Among its singles, "I Don't Want to Live Without Your Love" made the Top Five, "Look Away" topped the charts, and "You're Not Alone" made the Top Ten as the album went platinum. Another single, "What Kind of Man Would I Be?," originally found on the album, was included as part of the 1989 compilation Greatest Hits 1982-1989 (which counted as the 20th album) and became a Top Five hit, while the album sold five million copies by 1997.

At the turn of the decade, Chicago underwent two more personnel changes, with guitarist DaWayne Bailey joining and original drummer Danny Seraphine departing, to be replaced by Tris Imboden. Chicago Twenty 1, released at the start of 1991, sold disappointingly, and Warner rejected the band's next offering (though tracks from it did turn up on compilations). Chicago, however, maintained a loyal following that enabled them to tour successfully every summer. In 1995, Keith Howland replaced Bailey as Chicago's guitarist. The same year, the band regained rights to its Columbia Records catalog and established its own Chicago Records label to reissue the albums. They also signed to Giant Records, another Warner imprint, to release their 22nd album, Night & Day, a collection of big-band standards that made the Top 100. They were now able to combine hits from their Columbia and Warner years, resulting in the release of the gold-selling The Heart of Chicago 1967-1997 and its follow-up, The Heart of Chicago, Vol. 2 1967-1998 (their 23rd and 24th albums, respectively). In 1998, they released Chicago 25: The Christmas Album on Chicago Records, and they followed it in 1999 with Chicago XXVI: The Live Album. In 2002, Chicago began leasing its early albums to Rhino Records for deluxe repackagings, often with bonus tracks. And the success of The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning demonstrated that their music continued to appeal to fans. Feeding off the renewed interest, the band reappeared in 2006 with the new album Chicago XXX on Rhino. The rejected Warner album from 1993 was finally released by Rhino in 2008 as Stone of Sisyphus: XXXII. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
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Chicago (band)

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Chicago

Chicago in 2004 (L-R): Keith Howland, James Pankow, Bill Champlin, Walt Parazaider, Tris Imboden, Lee Loughnane, Robert Lamm (view blocked) and Jason Scheff.
Background information
Also known as The Big Thing, The Chicago Transit Authority
Origin Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres Rock, Jazz fusion, Progressive rock, Soft rock
Years active 1967–present
Labels Columbia, Full Moon, Rhino
Associated acts The Beach Boys, Doobie Brothers, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sons of Champlin, Toto, America
Website www.chicagotheband.com
Members
Robert Lamm
James Pankow
Lee Loughnane
Walter Parazaider
Jason Scheff
Tris Imboden
Keith Howland
Drew Hester
Lou Pardini
Past members
Danny Seraphine
Peter Cetera
Terry Kath
Laudir de Oliveira
Donnie Dacus
Chris Pinnick
Bill Champlin
Dawayne Bailey

Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Second only to The Beach Boys in terms of Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest running and most successful pop/rock and roll groups.[1]

Chicago re-teamed with producer Phil Ramone in October 2010 to begin work on a new album.[2][3]

According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading US singles charting group during the 1970s. They have sold over 38 million units in the US, with 22 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums.[4][5] Over the course of their career they have charted five No. 1 albums, and have had 21 top ten hits.

Contents

Group history
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Beginnings

Chicago co-founder/drummer Danny Seraphine

The band was formed when a group of DePaul University students, together with Marvin Cantera and Andre Jugo (music students who had been playing local late-night clubs), recruited a couple of other students from the university and decided to meet in saxophonist Walter Parazaider's apartment. The five musicians consisted of Parazaider, guitarist Terry Kath, drummer Danny Seraphine, trombonist James Pankow, trumpet player Lee Loughnane. The last to arrive was keyboardist Robert Lamm, a music major from Chicago's Roosevelt University. The group of six called themselves The Big Thing, and continued playing top-40 hits, but realized that they were missing a tenor voice (Lamm and Kath both sang in the baritone range); the voice they were missing belonged to local bassist Peter Cetera.[6]

While gaining some success as a cover band, the group began working on original songs. In June 1968, they moved to Los Angeles, California under the guidance of their friend and manager James William Guercio, and signed with Columbia Records. After signing with Guercio, The Big Thing changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority.[1]

Their first record (released in April 1969), the eponymous The Chicago Transit Authority (sometimes informally referred to simply as CTA), was a double album — very rare for a first release — featuring jazzy instrumentals, extended jams featuring Latin percussion, and experimental, feedback-laden guitar abstraction. It sold over one million copies by 1970, and was awarded a platinum disc.[7] The album began to receive heavy airplay on the newly popular FM radio band; it included a number of pop-rock songs—"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", and "Questions 67 and 68": they would later be edited to an AM radio-friendly length and released as singles.

Soon after the album's release, the band's name was shortened to Chicago, when the actual Chicago Transit Authority threatened legal action.[8][9]

Greatest prominence

The band's popularity increased with the release of their second album, titled Chicago (also known as Chicago II), which was another double-LP set and was the group's breakthrough album. The centerpiece track was a seven-part, 13-minute suite composed by James Pankow called "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" (the structure of this suite was inspired by Pankow's love for classical music). The suite yielded two top ten hits: the crescendo-filled "Make Me Smile" (No. 9 U.S.) and ballad "Colour My World", both sung by Terry Kath. Among the other popular tracks on the album: Robert Lamm's dynamic but cryptic "25 or 6 to 4" (Chicago's first Top 5 hit), which was a reference to a songwriter trying to write at 25 or 26 minutes to 4 in the morning, and was sung by Peter Cetera with wah-wah guitar by Kath; the lengthy war-protest song "It Better End Soon"; and, at the end, Cetera's 1969 moon landing-inspired "Where Do We Go from Here?". The double-LP album's inner cover includes—in addition to the playlist—the entire lyrics to "It Better End Soon", and two declarations: "This album should be experienced sequentially" (this would suggest that Chicago is a concept album), and, "With this album, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution. And the revolution in all of its forms."

The band recorded and released LPs at a rate of at least one album per year from their third album in 1971 through the 1970s. During this period, the group's album titles invariably consisted of the band's name followed by a Roman numeral, indicating the album's sequence in their canon, a naming pattern that lent an encyclopedic aura to the band's work. The exceptions to this scheme were the band's fourth album, a live boxed set entitled Chicago at Carnegie Hall, their twelfth album Hot Streets, and the Arabic-numbered Chicago 13. While the live album itself did not bear a number, each of the four discs within the set was numbered Volumes I through IV. The distinctive Chicago logo was designed by Nick Fasciano (bearing more than a passing resemblance to the Coca-Cola logo) and has graced every album cover (except No. 15, Greatest Hits Vol. 2) in one form or another—for example, as an American flag on III, a piece of wood on V, a U.S. dollar bill on VI, an embroidered patch on VIII, a chocolate bar on X, a fingerprint on XIV, a computer silicon chip on 16, and a mosaic on 18.

In 1971, Chicago released the ambitious quadruple-album live set, Chicago at Carnegie Hall Volumes I, II, III, and IV, consisting of live performances, mostly of music from their first three albums, from a week-long run at the famous venue; along with the James Gang and Led Zeppelin in 1969, Chicago was one of the few rock bands to play the historic concert hall since The Beatles performed there on February 12, 1964. The performances and sound quality were judged sub-par; in fact, trombonist James Pankow went on record to say that "the horn section sounded like kazoos." The packaging of the album also contained some rather strident political messaging about how "We [youth] can change The System," including massive wall posters and voter registration information. Nevertheless, Chicago at Carnegie Hall went on to become the best-selling box set by a rock act, and held that distinction for 15 years.

The group bounced back in 1972 with their first single-disc release, Chicago V, a diverse set that reached number one on both the Billboard pop and jazz albums charts and yielded the Robert Lamm-composed-and-sung radio hit and perennial fan favorite "Saturday in the Park", which mixed everyday life and political yearning in a more subtle way. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1972. Chicago would long open their concerts with the hit song. Another Lamm-composed hit song therein was "Dialogue (Part I & II)", which featured a musical "debate" between a political activist (sung by Kath) and a blasé college student (sung by Cetera).

In 1973, the group's manager, Guercio, produced and directed Electra Glide in Blue, a movie about an Arizona motorcycle policeman. The movie starred Robert Blake and featured Cetera, Kath, Loughnane, and Parazaider in supporting roles. The group also appeared prominently on the movie's soundtrack.

Other successful albums and singles followed in each of the succeeding years. 1973's Chicago VI topped the charts buoyed by the hits "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" (No. 10 U.S.) and "Just You 'N' Me" (No. 4 U.S.) and it was also the first of several albums to include Brazilian jazz percussionist Laudir de Oliveira. Chicago VII, the band's double-disc 1974 release, featured the Cetera-composed "Wishing You Were Here", (No. 11 U.S.) sung by Terry Kath and Cetera with background vocals by Cetera and The Beach Boys and some fusion jazz. Chicago VII also provided one of the group's enduring signature tunes, the anthemic "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long", which started with as a soft ballad and culminated in a hard-rock conclusion featuring Terry Kath's electric guitar soloing against the Chicago horn section and a soaring string arrangement by Jimmie Haskell. "Happy Man," another song from Chicago VII, was also a popular favorite on FM radio, was a big hit in South America and subsequently covered by Tony Orlando and Dawn on their album To Be With You. Their 1975 release, Chicago VIII, featured the political allegory "Harry Truman" and the nostalgic Pankow-composed "Old Days". Both hits reached the Top 15, with the latter even reaching the Top Five. That summer also saw a very successful joint tour across America with The Beach Boys, with both acts performing separately, then coming together for a rousing finale. The tour was considered one of the highest grossing in rock music up to that time.

Chicago gave a concert in Mexico City in 1975 at the Auditorio Nacional which was highly appreciated by the audience, contrary to the Mexican press later reviewing it as not one of the band’s better performances, presumably for the band not being "in the best of shape". The tickets for the concert sold so fast that thousands of people were unable to get in, so Terry Kath asked those inside to applaud for those standing outside. Carmen Romano de López Portillo, the wife of México's then-President José López Portillo, is said to have been in first row of the audience.[citation needed]

But for all their effort, none of their singles went to number one until Chicago X in 1976, when Cetera's ballad "If You Leave Me Now" climbed to the top of the charts and remained there for two weeks. The song also won Chicago their only Grammy award, for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group in 1977. Ironically, the tune almost did not make the cut for the album; "If You Leave Me Now" was recorded at the very last minute. The huge success of the song would foreshadow a later reliance on ballads that would typecast the group on radio, despite the presence of mellower songs on all the previous albums. The group's 1977 release, Chicago XI, was another big success for the band; it included Cetera's hit ballad "Baby, What a Big Surprise", a No. 4 U.S. hit which became one of the group's last big hits of the decade.

Time of transition

1978 was a tragic and transitional year for Chicago. The year began with an acrimonious split with long-time manager James William Guercio. Then, on January 23, guitarist/singer-songwriter/group co-founder Terry Kath died of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound. One account describes Kath's drunken last words to guitar tech Don Johnson: "Don't worry, guys. It isn't even loaded. See?"[10] Kath was the group's leader onstage, and for many longtime fans, its musical soul. Terry Kath's shocking death could have meant the end for Chicago, but encouraged by friends and admirers such as Doc Severinsen, the group held fast and soldiered on.

After auditioning over 30 potential replacements for Kath, Chicago decided upon guitarist/singer/songwriter Donnie Dacus, who joined the band in April 1978 just in time for the Hot Streets album (he was also being filmed for the musical Hair at the time). Its energetic lead-off single, "Alive Again", brought Chicago back to the Top 15; James Pankow wrote it "originally as a love song but ultimately as recognition of Kath's guiding spirit shining down from above."[11] The group was briefly re-energized by Dacus, whose long blond hair and rock star image stage presence seemingly overshadowed his musical abilities. The kinetic Dacus may have been out of character for the normally laid-back Chicago, but he could sing and play, and the band responded by delivering some of their tightest live performances ever. Hot Streets, with producer Phil Ramone now at the helm, was Chicago's first album with an actual title rather than a number and was the band's first LP to have a picture of the band (shot by photographer Norman Seeff) featured prominently on the cover (with the ubiquitous logo downsized), two moves that were seen by many as a way to indicate the band had changed following Kath's death. To a degree, the band returned to the old naming scheme on its subsequent releases, although most titles would now bear Arabic numerals rather than Roman numerals. (Coincidentally, Hot Streets, the band's twelfth album, peaked at #12 on the Billboard charts; it was Chicago's first release since their debut to fail to make the Top 10.) The release of Hot Streets also marked a move somewhat away from the jazz-rock direction favored by Kath and towards more pop songs and ballads. Dacus didn't last long, only staying with the band through the 1979 album Chicago 13 (Dacus is also featured in a promotional video on the DVD included in the Rhino Records Chicago box set from 2003). 13, again produced by Phil Ramone, was the group's first studio album not to contain a Top 40 hit.

1980's Chicago XIV, produced by Tom Dowd, relegated the horn section to the background on a number of tracks, and the album's two singles failed to make the Top 40. Production values were spare, perhaps due to the lean, stripped-down New Wave music that was popular at the time. Chris Pinnick handled the guitar duties and came close to the "Kath sound," but did not sing. He would remain with the band through 1985. Believing the band to no longer be commercially viable, Columbia Records dropped them from its roster in 1981 and released a second "Greatest Hits" volume later that year to fulfill its contractual obligation.

The second major phase of the band's career took off in late 1981—with a new producer (David Foster), a new label (Warner Brothers), and the addition of keyboardist/guitarist/singer Bill Champlin (of Sons of Champlin fame) and guitarist Chris Pinnick (who had played on XIV and subsequent tour); percussionist Laudir de Oliveira also departed at this time along with former Buckingham and sax player Marty Grebb, who had joined the group briefly for the XIV tour.

Foster brought in studio musicians for some of the tracks on Chicago 16 (including the core members of Toto), and Chicago once again topped the charts with the song "Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away", which was featured in the soundtrack of the Daryl Hannah film Summer Lovers. This was followed up by a string-laden power ballad that barely missed the top 20, "Love Me Tomorrow". The following album, Chicago 17, became the biggest selling album of the band's history, producing two more Top Ten singles—"You're the Inspiration" and "Hard Habit to Break" (both No. 3 hits)—and two other singles: "Stay the Night" (No. 16) and "Along Comes a Woman" (No. 14). Peter's brother, Kenny Cetera, was brought into the group for the 17 tour to add percussion and high harmony vocals.

Lead vocalist Peter Cetera's desire to record a second solo album (he'd done his eponymous first one in 1981) and not continue with the band's gruelling tour schedule caused him to leave Chicago in 1985. Although other band members (including Lamm and Champlin) have released solo material, Cetera has proved the most successful—topping the pop charts with The Karate Kid, Part II theme song "Glory of Love", and with "The Next Time I Fall" (a duet with Amy Grant). Two more songs—a 1988 solo hit called "One Good Woman" (No. 4 U.S.) and a 1989 duet with Cher called "After All" (No. 6 U.S.)—reached the Top Ten.

The post-Cetera era

Cetera was replaced in September 1985 by bassist/singer/songwriter Jason Scheff, son of Elvis Presley's bassist Jerry Scheff, who joined the band for the final Foster-produced album Chicago 18. This album was not as commercially successful as the previous two, but still produced the No. 3 single "Will You Still Love Me?", a Top 5 Adult Contemporary and Top 20 Pop song ("If She Would Have Been Faithful..."), and also a high-tech and highly programmed version of "25 or 6 to 4" with a concept video that got a lot of airplay on MTV. Soon after the album was recorded, the band hired guitarist Dawayne Bailey from Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band. Bailey and Scheff had previously played in bands together, so Scheff introduced Bailey to the band in time for the Chicago 18 tour (Scheff and Bailey's first concert with Chicago took place on Friday Oct 17, 1986 in Rockford, Illinois).

In 1988, the band replaced producer Foster with Ron Nevison and Chas Sanford, and they topped the charts again with the Diane Warren-composed single "Look Away", from the album Chicago 19. The album also yielded two more Top 10 hits, both with Bill Champlin singing solo lead for the first time and another Top 5 single that would officially be a release from the forthcoming greatest hits record. Chicago 19 was followed in short order by Greatest Hits 1982-1989, which included the aforementioned No. 5 hit "What Kind Of Man Would I Be?", a slightly remixed tune originally included on 19 and sung by Jason Scheff. The album's other Top Ten hit, "You're Not Alone", reached No. 10 in early 1989. During 1989, Chicago did a reprise joint concert tour with The Beach Boys (and would do so once again in 1997).

The band continued in the decade of the 1990s, even though their popularity began to decline. There was also another personnel change: founding member Danny Seraphine was fired by the band in 1990 and was replaced by drummer Tris Imboden, who first appeared on the 1991 album Twenty 1. Imboden was well known in the industry as the longtime drummer for Kenny Loggins. Chicago was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 23, 1992.

In 1993, Chicago wrote and recorded their 22nd album, Stone of Sisyphus. Their record company at the time though, Reprise [Warner Music Group], was unhappy with the finished result, and thus the album was not released, although in succeeding years bootleg recordings of the album went on to surface worldwide, including over the Internet. It is also rumored that the label would not release the album as a result of being unable to reach a licensing agreement with band management over the back catalog. Selected tracks from the unreleased album were later officially released on four international compilation greatest hits CDs and the Rhino Records 2003 box set, and four were re-recorded for band members' solo albums. One track, "The Pull," was performed live during their 1993 appearance at the Greek Theatre (taped for PBS, and released on video in 1993). The album finally did see a release in June 2008, almost 15 years after its completion.

Starting on their 1994 tour, Chicago merged their unique sound with Big Band music for the 1995 album Night & Day Big Band, which consisted of covers of songs originally recorded by artists like Sarah Vaughan, Glenn Miller, and Duke Ellington (from whom the album mainly got its inspiration). Session guitarist Bruce Gaitsch handled the guitar work, and the album featured guest appearances by Paul Shaffer of "David Letterman" fame, and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.

Keith Howland joined the band as guitarist in early 1995 to replace the departed Dawayne Bailey.

During a Los Angeles concert in 1997, Chicago teamed up with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to perform a James Pankow/Dwight Mikelson orchestral arrangement of Pankow's rock epic "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon". Also during this year, the group released The Heart of Chicago 1967-1997, a compilation album which went gold and yielded the No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit "Here in My Heart."

In 1998, Chicago released Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album, which mixed traditional holiday favorites with an original Lee Loughnane composition. It went gold in the US. (The album was re-released with additional tracks in 2003, under the title What's It Gonna Be, Santa?.) The album featured Howland's first (and to date only) lead vocal on a Chicago record.

The band released a live album in 1999, Chicago XXVI, which included only two of the many songs Cetera helped to write while in the group. In 2000, the group had the opportunity to tell their story in an episode of VH1's Behind The Music. This included gems such as Pankow relating this story from the early 1980s: "One record company said, 'Man, if you get rid of the horn section, we'll sign ya...' That's like tellin' Elton John to get rid of the piano." The show, however, was not without its difficulties. The episode put more emphasis on the death of Terry Kath than on their entire career combined, and Peter Cetera refused to be interviewed or to allow the songs he wrote to be played on it (although the episode did include interviews he gave to others and songs he co-wrote).

Chicago since 2000

Despite the personnel changes over the years, the group is still active four decades after its founding. They are one of the few major rock groups that have never broken up or even taken an extended hiatus. As of June 2010, four of the six surviving founding members (major songwriters Lamm and Pankow, plus Loughnane and Parazaider) remain providing continuity, while Jason Scheff has been with the band 25 years, Tris Imboden 20 years, and Keith Howland 15 years.

As a new century turned, the band licensed their entire recorded output to Rhino Records (after years with Columbia Records and Warner Brothers). In 2002, Rhino released a two-disc compilation, The Very Best of Chicago: Only The Beginning, which spans the band's entire career. The compilation made the Top 40 and sold over 2 million copies in the US, and includes a new edit of "Make Me Smile"—which segued together the beginning ("Make Me Smile") and end ("Now More Than Ever") parts of the "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite like the original single did, but without its numerous cuts. Rhino has also begun releasing remastered versions of all of the band's Columbia albums, each including several bonus tracks. In 2003, they released a 5-CD / 1-DVD box set—which includes a new edit of "It Better End Soon" (minus the flute solo), a track they had done for USA for Africa: We Are the World ("Good for Nothing"), and 3 tracks from the still-unissued Stone of Sisyphus album (its title track, "All the Years", and "Bigger Than Elvis"–the latter being Scheff's tribute to his father, who had performed with Elvis Presley). In 2005, they released a compilation entitled Love Songs.

Chicago continues to appear in big and small venues worldwide. In 2004–2005 they toured jointly with the band Earth, Wind & Fire; a DVD recorded during that tour, Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire - Live at the Greek Theatre, was certified platinum just two months after its release.

The group released Chicago XXX, on March 21, 2006, their first all-new studio album since Twenty 1. Two songs from this album, "Feel" and "Caroline", were performed live during Chicago's Fall 2005 tour; the studio recording of "Feel" debuted on WPLJ radio in New York in November 2005. "Feel" was the first single released. The album contains two versions of the song: one with horns and an orchestral tag that echoes "Love Me Tomorrow", and another non-brass version. "Love Will Come Back" was the second single released. While Chicago XXX did manage to debut at No. 41 on the US album chart (besting some other entries, including Chicago XIV, which hit US No. 71, and Twenty 1, which topped out at only US No. 66), it remained in the top 200 for only two weeks.

During March 2006, Chicago made a multi-week appearance at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, which was repeated in May of the same year. In July 2006, the band made a series of US appearances with Huey Lewis and the News. Highlights of that tour included Chicago's Bill Champlin performing with Huey Lewis and the News on a couple of songs, members of Huey Lewis and the News contributing to Chicago's percussion-laden song, "I'm a Man," and Huey Lewis singing the lead vocal on Chicago's "Colour My World."

At the end of 2006, the band played at CD USA's New Year's Eve party on Fremont Street in Las Vegas. Chicago toured the summer of 2007 with the band America. On October 2, 2007, Rhino Records released the two-disc The Best of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition, a new greatest hits compilation spanning their entire forty years, similar to The Very Best of: Only the Beginning, released four years earlier.

June 17, 2008 saw the official release of the Stone of Sisyphus album by Rhino Records, recorded in 1993 and originally slated for a March 1994 release until being shelved by Warner Records. The album contains eleven of the original twelve tracks (the raucous "Get on This", considered by many fans to be the best track on the album, was left off), plus four demo recordings.

In 2009 Chicago reunited with Earth, Wind & Fire for yet another joint tour.[12]

In August 2009, Bill Champlin, who was with Chicago for 28 years, left the band to focus on his own music and solo career.[13] His replacement is keyboardist Lou Pardini. Drew Hester also joined the band in 2010.[14]

On December 12, 2009, Chicago performed nine songs live on stage at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Connecticut as part of Brian Boitano's Skating Spectacular, taped for a New Year's Day NBC television broadcast. Boitano and other skaters performed live on the ice to the band's music.

In 2010, Chicago toured with the Doobie Brothers with a performance in the City of Chicago that became a video for the HDNet cable channel, with the Doobies joining Chicago for two encore tunes. The band also appeared on the American Idol 9th season finale.[15]

On July the 24th, 2011, the band performed at Red Rocks in Colorado, accompanied by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. This was the first time Chicago played a full-length symphonic concert.

The band re-teamed with producer Phil Ramone (who produced Hot Streets, Chicago 13, and the new tracks for the expanded Christmas re-release What's It Gonna Be, Santa?) to record a new Christmas album. Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Three was released in October 2011. In the meantime, Rhino released Chicago XXXIV: Live in '75, a concert from 1975.

Membership

Drew Hester Lou Pardini Brian Hicks Steve Jankowski Lee Thornburg Tom Timko Ray Herrmann Larry Klimas Nick Lane Bob Roberts Guille Garcia Lou Pardini Drew Hester Keith Howland Tris Imboden Dawayne Bailey Jason Scheff Bill Champlin Chris Pinnick Donnie Dacus Laudir de Oliveira Terry Kath Peter Cetera Danny Seraphine Walter Parazaider Lee Loughnane James Pankow Robert Lamm

Subs (by year)
Bob Roberts - woodwinds (mid-1969 briefly)
Brian Hicks - trumpet (1976)
Lee Thornburg - trumpet (1992 and recently)
Steve Jankowski - trumpet (1992, 2006, 2007)
Nick Lane - trombone (since 1999)
Lou Pardini - keyboards, vocals (August 1999, September 2007 and replacing Bill Champlin as of August 2009)
Larry Klimas - woodwinds (since 2003)
Ray Herrmann- woodwinds (since 2005)
Tom Timko - woodwinds (2005)
Drew Hester - drums (2009 January–August), percussion (2010)
Rock - percussion (since 2010)

Discography

Main article: Chicago discography

See also

References

 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)
  1. ^ a b Ruhlmann, William. Chicago. Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved on: 2009-06-23.
  2. ^ http://scheffland.ning.com
  3. ^ "Niet compatibele browser". Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Scheff-Music/246877268130#!/pages/Jason-Scheff-Music/246877268130?v=wall. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  4. ^ "Gold and Platinum - Top Selling Artists". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt. Retrieved 2010-07-23. 
  5. ^ "Gold and Platinum - Artist Tallies". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblArtTal. Retrieved 2010-07-23. 
  6. ^ [1][dead link]
  7. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. pp. 255–256. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 
  8. ^ Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2002). All music guide to rock : the definitive guide to rock, pop, and soul (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books. pp. 208–09. ISBN 978-0-87930-653-3. OCLC 317555621. 
  9. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard book of number 1 hits : the inside story behind every number one single on Billboard's Hot 100 from 1955 to the present (5th ed.). New York: Billboard Books. p. 446. ISBN 978-0-8230-7677-2. OCLC 229271613. 
  10. ^ Guitars 'n' Guns, 1978 Darwin Award Nominee (confirmed true by Darwin)
  11. ^ "The Box", Chicago's 2003 5-CD / 1-DVD "greatest hits" compilation
  12. ^ "Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire reunite for summer tour". CNN. http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/10/chicago-earth-wind-fire-reunite-for-summer-tour. Retrieved April 28, 2010. 
  13. ^ "Musician Bill Champlin leaves Chicago - CNN.com". CNN. August 11, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/10/chicago.champlin/. Retrieved April 28, 2010. 
  14. ^ "Chicago (the band) Official Store - Chicago Store". Chicagotheband.net. http://www.chicagotheband.net/. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  15. ^ Berman, Craig (27 May 2010). "'Idol’ voters make DeWyze choice". http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37367849/ns/today-entertainment/. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 

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