| 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.)
1980's 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 Chicago --
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 have
turned up on compilations). Chicago,
however, maintained a loyal following
that enabled it 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. |
