Columbia Records reacted by dropping the band. Chicago released the compilation Chicago XV in 1981. Enlisting the help of producer David Foster, the group signed with Warner Brothers Records. Keyboardist, guitarist, and singer Bill Champlin joined the band, with de Oliveira leaving. Foster continued to emphasize power ballads rather than the horn section.
Chicago released the album Chicago 16 in 1982, with Foster not only limiting the horns but bringing in studio musicians, including several members of Toto. Cetera wrote this with Foster, who also played piano. "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" gave the group their second #1, was a million-seller, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
"Love Me Tomorrow" reached #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
The album went to #9 and went Platinum. In 1984, the album Chicago 17 became one of the group's biggest and was a marked comeback. Chicago won the American Music Award for Favorite Popular/Rock Band, Duo, or Group. "Hard Habit To Break" reached the Top 10 in nearly every country and was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the Grammy Awards. The vocals of Cetera and Champlain blend particularly well, which is a credit to Foster's production.
"You're The Inspiration" ruled the Adult chart and peaked at #3 overall.
Chicago 17 has sold over six million copies in the U.S. alone. Cetera by this point was the chief songwriter and lead vocalist. He wrote this along with guitarist Mark Goldenberg--"Along Comes A Woman".
Cetera, however, wanted to have an arrangement similar to Phil Collins and Genesis, where Cetera could record solo albums in between tours. The group declined the offer, and Cetera left the group in 1985 to enjoy a fantastic solo career.
Chicago auditioned several musicians to replace Peter, deciding on Jason Scheff, son of Elvis Presley's bassist in later years, Jerry Scheff.
Pinnick also left the group prior to recording the next album, replaced by session guitarists. In 1986, Chicago released the album Chicago 18, the group's first with Scheff as lead singer. He belted out the hit "Will You Still Love Me?", helping take it all the way to #2 on the Adult chart and #3.
The follow-up single, "If She Would Have Been Faithful" made it to #9 on the AC chart.
Dawayne Bailey came to Chicago by way of Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band and toured with Chicago to promote their album. The group also replaced Foster with two other experienced producers in Ron Nevison and Chas Sanford. Chicago took the Diane Warren-penned song "Look Away" was a multi-format #1 in both the U.S. and Canada and sold over one million copies.
Warren said the song was inspired by a friend who worked in her building. The woman had divorced her husband and they remained friends. It was clear that the man was hoping to get back together, and he was devastated when he found out she was going to marry someone else.
"Look Away was Billboard's #1 song for the entire year. "I Don't Wanna' Live Without Your Love", the first to feature Chaplain on lead vocals, rose to #3 in the United States and #4 in Canada.
Chicago landed their 21st career Top 10 hit with "You're Not Alone", another song to feature Champlain.
The band released the album Chicago 19 in 1988, which included "We Can Last Forever", one of Scheff's best-written songs.
In 1989, the band released their compilation album Greatest Hits 1982-1989, which contained the new single, "What Kind Of Man Would I Be?"
Original member Seraphine was fired by the group in May of 1990, with Tris Imboden, Kenny Loggins' drummer, taking his place. Chicago released the album Twenty One in 1991.
In 1992, Chicago received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The next year, the group completed their album Stone of Sisyphus, but executives of Reprise Records rejected the album, so Chicago left the label. The release of the album was held up for 15 years, but finally, an arrangement was made so that Rhino Records could release the album in 2008.
After their tour in 1994, Chicago signed with Giant Records and released the album Night & Day: Big Band, with remakes of songs by some of the jazz greats: Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and Sarah Vaughan. The group hired guitarist Bruce Gaitsch for this album, and Joe Perry of Aerosmith also helped out. In 1995, Chicago chose Keith Howland as the group's permanent guitarist.
The band released the box set The Heart of Chicago 1967-1997, including the new song "Here In My Heart".
In 1998, the group released Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album as well as the live album, Chicago XXVI.
In 2002, the compilation album The Very Best of Chicago: Only The Beginning, was released and sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone. Chicago toured in 2004, 2005, and 2009 with another supergroup, Earth, Wind & Fire, and also had short residencies at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2006. They also toured with Huey Lewis and the News. In 2006, the group released their first album of new material in 15 years--Chicago XXX. The album failed to catch on but did receive some airplay.
In 2008, the long-shelved album Stone of Sisyphus was finally released as Chicago XXXII.
Drew Hester, percussionist and drummer with the Foo Fighters, filled in for Imboden, who was ill, and then stayed with Chicago as a percussionist. In 2009, Champlin was fired and replaced by keyboardist Lou Pardini, who previously had worked with Stevie Wonder and Santana.
Chicago toured with the Doobie Brothers in 2010, 2012, and again in 2017. They released the holiday album Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Three in 2011. In 2014, the group released XXXVI: Now in 2014 and released a double live album, Chicago at Symphony Hall, in 2015.
Chicago teamed with Earth, Wind & Fire for wildly successful tours in 2015 and 2016. Chicago was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Scheff left Chicago in 2016, with Jeff Coffey becoming a full-time member. Neil Donell replaced Coffey in 2018. Jeff Parazaider stopped touring at this time, was replaced in live shows by saxophonist Ray Hermann. In 2017, CNN aired the documentary Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago.
On June 15, 2017, Cetera, Lamm, and Pankow were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2018, Imboden and Coffey left the group, with percussionist Walfredo Reyes, Jr. hired as the new drummer, Neil Donell assuming lead vocalist duties, and Brett Simons brought in on bass.
Chicago released the box set Chicago: VI Decades Live (This is What We Do), featuring the group's live shows throughout their career. The band also released the Christmas album Chicago XXXVII: Chicago Christmas in 2019.
Chicago received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2020.
The supergroup has collected 50 hits over their career, with 23 of those reaching the Top 10 and 3 #1's. Among adults, Chicago charted 44 career hits with 24 Top 10's and 7 #1 smashes. They have won three Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, plus being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, two American Music Awards, a Billboard Music Award and a People's Choice Award. They have sold over 122 million albums.
Chicago released the album Chicago VIII in 1975. This song by Pankow remembers his childhood. "Old Days" rose to #3 on the Adult chart and #5 Popular. Pankow's talent for arranging is evident as he shifts from a major to minor key on "Of a world gone away" and also adds strings about halfway through, both to emphasize that we are all now adults.
By this time, Chicago was turning towards emphasizing love songs and Lamm, who had written many of the group's early hits, wrote one of his few in that category. "Never Been In Love Before" stands as one of the best Chicago songs never released as a single.
The group released Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits in 1975, which gave the group five consecutive #1 albums. They hosted the television special Chicago's New Year's Rockin" Eve 1975 on ABC.
Chicago X in 1976 featured one of the group's biggest career hits, Cetera's two million-selling "If You Leave Me Now", which was the first Chicago song to feature an acoustic guitar, which was played by producer Guercio. "If You Leave Me Now" topped charts in every major country, #1 in the U.S. for two weeks and #1 in the U.K. for three weeks.
Unbelievably, Chicago earned their only Grammy Award for the song with Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus, though they were nominated for Album of the Year. Chicago X has now sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone. To celebrate Chicago's Platinum album achievement, Columbia gave the group a 25-pound bar of pure platinum made by Cartier.
Chicago also won Favorite Popular Rock Band, Duo, or Group at the American Music Awards.
Chicago was always a band at their best when they mixed ballads with political messages with rock & roll with horn-dominated jazz rock. The success of "If You Leave Me Now" was both a blessing and a curse. After it hit #1, the group got away from many of the things that made them great and concentrated mostly on ballads. The ballads were still good, but fans in coming years would miss the other elements.
In 1977, the group returned with Chicago XI, highlighted by Cetera's ballad "Baby, What A Big Surprise", a #4 smash in the U.S. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys returned for backing vocals along with Tim Cetera, Peter's brother. Parazaider played flute with Louchnane playing the piccolo trumpet on the track.
The album reached #6 and sold over one million copies in its first year. "Policeman" is Lamm's sensitive look at a middle-aged beat cop, with arrangement by Pankow. According to liner notes, Lamm's inspiration is from the writings of former Los Angeles police officer Joseph Wambaugh, who co-created the television series Police Story and also wrote several police-related novels.
Here we have the story of a man who yearns for simple freedoms before life became difficult to understand. But it has a much deeper meaning than that.
Seraphine wrote the song with Hawk Wolinski of Rufus about a friend of Seraphine's, Fred Pappalardo.
Pappalardo was a drummer with the band Illinois Speed Press, also managed by Guercio and signed to Columbia. Fred became gravely ill. "This was after we had made it; we were selling out arenas," Seraphine told Something Else! "A dear friend of mine called me and said, 'Danny, Fred is pretty sick. He'd like to see you.', Danny continued.
"I was just about to go on a tour; we were leaving
in two days. I said, ‘I’ll come by after I get back.’
He said: ‘Danny, he might not be here when you
get back.’ I said: ‘OK, I’ll be right over.’ He was
in a ward, and we talked. It was tearful, very
tearful. I knew I was saying goodbye to him,
basically. I thanked him for being such a friend.”
That moment gave Seraphine inspiration to write "Take Me Back To Chicago", a hidden gem on the album that includes Chaka Khan on backing vocals. “A nurse came in and said she was going to put him on a bed pan, and he asked me to leave because he didn’t want me to remember him like that,” Seraphine said. “That’s where the line ‘remember me at my best’ comes from. That really stuck with me; it really haunted me."
In 1977, Madison Square Garden (capacity of 20,000) announced its Gold Ticket Award, which would be given to those acts who had brought in 100,000 total fans. At the time, Chicago was one of eleven artists who had achieved the feat and when the band performed on October 28, they received the award for drawing 180,000 people in nine sold-out shows.
1978 was a tumultuous year for the group. Guercio's purchase of Caribou Ranch caused consternation on how he could have enough money to purchase the property and led to suspicions among group members that he was taking advantage of them and then firing of Guercio as manager.
Then, disaster struck. On January 23, Kath was at a party and pointed a gun he thought was unloaded at his head and pulled the trigger. The gun indeed was loaded and Kath died instantly. The surviving members gave serious thought to splitting up but finally decided to soldier on without one of their founding members. The group considered 30 guitarists who auditioned before deciding on Donnie Dacus.
In 1978, Chicago released the album Hot Streets, produced by Phil Ramone, who rose to fame as Billy Joel's producer. The single "Alive Again" reflected the band's renewed optimism and Pankow revealed he "originally wrote it as a love song but ultimately as recognition of Kath's guiding spirit shining down from above".
Mike Stahl, who was the group's audio engineer at the time, said in an interview with ProSound Web that the rhythm section of Lamm, Dacus, Cetera and Seraphine came into the studio and began jamming one day. Ramone recorded the jam, and despite recording the rhythm track 10 more times, it was that jam that made it to the album.
Absent of the jazz-rock style that Kath advocated, Hot Streets was the first Chicago album since their debut to not reach the Top 10. "No Tell Lover", co-written by Cetera, Loughnane and Seraphine, reached #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart but only #13 overall. The Bee Gees, who were recording the landmark album Spirits Having Flown next door, were asked to help on this album, with keyboardist Blue Weaver playing synchronized strings on this song.
Chicago recorded the album at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida. The third single from the album was "Gone Long Gone".
The band released the album Chicago 13, again produced by Ramone,in 1979. Dacus left the group following the concert tour that supported the album. Seraphine wrote this song with David Wolinski, who was a keyboardist with Rufus at the time. The song tells the story of Danny's childhood in a tough neighborhood in Chicago and his escape from that life by joining the group. Maynard Ferguson plays an awesome trumpet solo on "Street Player".
Chicago XIV in 1980 represented another shift in musical direction, as the trademark horns were not as prevalent as on previous albums. Chris Pinnick became the group's new guitarist and stayed through 1985. The album stalled at #71 and did not attain Gold status. One exception to the otherwise ordinary group of tracks is "Manipulation".
The group was in a bit of a slump, but they would rebound in a big way!
The unconventional rock and roll band with horns released another double album in 1971, Chicago III, which reached #2. "Free", written by Lamm, is part of the "Travel Suite" on the album and peaked at #20.
"Lowdown" is the third of six episodes of the "Travel Suite" and another contribution from Cetera. Kath used a fuzzbox and wah-wah pedal for the track.
The album Chicago at Carnegie Hall featured live performances of music in their catalog during a record-setting week-long run at Carnegie Hall. The band included political messaging about how young can change "The System" as well as posters and voter registration information.
In 1972, Cetera, Kath, Loughnane, and Parazaider appeared in the movie Electra Glide, which Guercio produced and directed. Several of Chicago's songs are featured on the soundtrack.
Chicago won a Trendsetter Award from Billboard magazine. The band released the album Chicago V, their first #1 album. "Saturday In The Park", written by Lamm, was a huge hit, hitting #3 amongst good competition. Lamm wrote it after experiencing a 4th of July celebration in New York City's Central Park. The classic also hit #2 in Canada and sold over one million copies.
"Dialogue (Part I & II)" represented a "musical debate" between an activist (Kath's part) and an apathetic college student (represented by Cetera). The song ends with the group singing the optimistic a cappella "We can make it happen."
Chicago appeared in the television special Duke Ellington...We Love You Madly on CBS, in which they performed Duke's "Jump For Joy". The group hired Brazilian jazz percussionist Laudir de Oliveira to spice up their sound. Cetera by this time was the group's lead singer, and the group released the album Chicago VI in 1973. The ever-building "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" hit #10 for the band. Cetera said in a 1991 interview that while the song is about "both healing and moving on after the end of a relationship," it could just as well apply to how the group was continuing to make inroads with two straight #1 albums.
Pankow wrote this song after a fight with future wife Karen. As he recalled in a 2019 interview with Billboard:
We had had a huge fight, it was a nasty
lovers' quarrel, if you will. She locked
herself in the bathroom and wouldn't come
out...'Just You 'n' Me' poured out of me in its
entirety. Usually when I write songs I come
up with an idea for a chorus or a hook and
fill in the blanks in stages. This was a
moment of clarity I've never experienced
before or after. It remains a special event in
my songwriting experience.
One of the group's signature songs, "Just You 'N' Me" was released as the follow-up, another million-seller that shot up to #3 in Canada and #4 in the U.S.
The band starred in the Dick Clark-produced television special Chicago in the Rockies on ABC, filmed at Guercio's Caribou Ranch in Colorado. "What's This World Comin' To" features all three main lead vocalists (Lamm, Cetera and Kath), the first time Chicago had done that since "I'm A Man".
"Beyond All Our Sorrows" is a heartbreaking honest assessment of Kath of his demons, particularly gut-wrenching because of the tragedy that would soon befall him. The track is a solo demo from Kath that did not appear on the album until the 2002 re-release.
The album, recorded at Guercio's newly-finished Caribou Studios in Nederland, Colorado, has now been certified Double Platinum. Up to this point, Chicago had recorded most of the material on their albums in New York City, but Caribou would be their home recording base for the next four years. "Something In This City Changes People" is a standout track on the album.
Chicago returned to a double album for the 1974 release Chicago VII, which was a return to more of the Jazz influences that had been largely absent on their previous two releases. "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" led the way, a #5 smash. Pankow's great song here begins with Lamm's electric keyboard over the top of strings and continued to build to the climax when Kath's rocking solo kicks in.
The group starred in another ABC television special, Chicago...Meanwhile Back at the Ranch.
With the release of the album, all previous albums also re-entered the Albums chart, making Chicago only the seventh artist to achieve that feat. Loughnane's first songwriting effort, "Call On Me", was a #1 Adult song that reached #6 overall.
The next single presented two of the greatest American (and all-time!) groups of all-time on one song--Chicago with the Beach Boys. With a peak of #11, it is easily one of The Top Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*. Cetera wrote it, although Kath sang most of the lead vocals.
Seeing the possibilities that existed when they enjoyed a hit in 1974 with the Beach Boys, the two acts went on tour together, with each act performing separately and then coming together for the finale. Guercio played bass for the Beach Boys, with all 17 musicians coming on stage to perform "Wishing You Were Here".
Guercio wanted more Rock numbers and ballads that the group had become famous for, while several members of the group wanted strictly jazz songs. The result was a compromise and the group's first double album since Chicago III. One album features Jazz-infused songs with the other more to Guercio's liking. "Aire" features complex rhythms and the pounding of congas and other percussion, much courtesy of future group percussionist Laudir deOlivera.
Chicago won the People's Choice Award in 1975 for Favorite Group. Cetera was the member who made the most strides in his songwriting on this album--he wrote "Wishing You Were Here" as well as "Happy Man".
Chicago was firmly entrenched as a supergroup by this time. But they hadn't reached the stratosphere necessary for a ranking as The #13 Artist of the Rock Era*. Join us for the music that earned them the points necessary in Parts Three and Four!
