Chicago - Biography
By Scott Feemster
Though Chicago have often been overlooked by rock critics over their 40+ year career together, there are two facts that are inescapable about the band; the first being that they were one of the first bands in rock history to successfully integrate a horn section into their sound, the second that they are one of the most all-around successful American bands ever, selling over 120 million albums worldwide, and scoring over 22 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multiplatinum records. This all with members of the band being all but unrecognizable if they walked down the street.
The core of what would become Chicago formed in their namesake city in the late 1960’s. Wanting to form a rock band that would truly incorporate horns into the sound of the group rather than have them as an appendage, De Paul University student and woodwind-player Walter Parazaider studied music during the day, but spent his nights playing in various bands around the city. Through playing in the clubs, he met fellow De Paul students trumpeter Lee Loughnane and trombonist James Pankow, and other veterans of the club scene, including guitarist/vocalist Terry Kath, and drummer Danny Seraphine. Parazaider convinced all of the musicians that they should devote themselves to creating a horn driven band, and after meeting at his apartment in early 1967, now with the addition of keyboardist/vocalist Robert Lamm, the group started practicing intently. The group early on relied on mostly R&B material with a rock edge, and took on the name the Big Thing. The group played around the Chicago area and in the Midwest, and were taking advice from an industry insider, James Guercio, who would later become their producer and manager. At one of these gigs, the band played with another rival band, the Exceptions, and their bass player/vocalist, Peter Cetera, was so blown away by the sound of the Big Thing, that he defected and soon joined. With Cetera, Kath and Lamm, the band now had three main vocalists with different ranges, and all of the members of the band were versatile enough as musicians where they could switch out on some instruments if need be. After not seeing the band for over a year, Guercio checked out a gig in 1968, and excited by the progress the band had made, suggested the band needed to move to Los Angeles to further their career.
Financed by Guercio, the entire band moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Hollywood in 1968, and kept their neighbors awake with hours of constant practicing. At Guercio’s suggestion, the band changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority, and after a few months of low paying gigs in the L.A. area, the group finally was signed to a record deal with Columbia Records. The group was flown to New York to record their first album, Chicago Transit Authority (Columbia/Chicago), released in 1969. From the beginning, the group were different. Rather than rely on their faces to sell their music, they insisted that just the band name be featured on the cover, and rather than release a single album, they released a double album. With it’s horn-driven songs and subtlely subversive political lyrics, the album became a hit, though it didn’t originally contain any singles. This was mostly due to the band touring heavily in support . To the band and Guercio’s surprise, the real Chicago Transit Authority contacted the band, and objected to the band using the name. The group shortened their name to just Chicago, and released their second double-album, Chicago (Columbia/Chicago) in 1970. (The album has since been known as Chicago II). The group scored two big hits from the album with the singles “Make Me Smile” and “25 or 6 to 4”, and in response, Columbia re-released a song from the group’s first album, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”, which became the band’s third Top Ten hit. Chicago III (Columbia/Chicago),(another double album), was released in 1971, and though it was successful, it didn’t contain any hit singles. Columbia again went back and raided the band’s back catalog, and released the double-sided single “Beginnings/Color My World”, songs taken from the band’s first couple of releases, and scored the band another Top Ten charting hit. The group continued touring extensively, and next released the four-album box set Chicago At Carnegie Hall (Columbia/Chicago)(1971) which documented a stand the band made at the famous New York venue. (The band themselves were never happy with the sound quality of the performance, and later released the album Live In Japan (Columbia/Chicago) in Japan in 1972, which was later re-released domestically on the band's own label.)
The group continued with a march through the early and mid '70's, racking up hit albums, singles, and successful tours as they went. Chicago V (Columbia/Chicago) was released in early 1972, and spent nine weeks as the #1 album in the U.S., spurred on by the hit single from the album, “Saturday In The Park”. Chicago VI (Columbia/Chicago) was released in 1973, and was just as successful, and contained the hit songs “Feelin' Stronger Every Day” and “Just You 'n' Me.” The group scored two more hit singles in 1974 with the songs “I've Been Searchin' So Long” and “Call On Me” from their next album, Chicago VII (Columbia/Chicago). The group added percussionist Laudir de Oliveira to their permanent line-up in time for their next album, 1975's Chicago VIII (Columbia/Chicago), which included the Top Ten hit “Old Days”. The group next released the collection Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits (Columbia/Chicago)(1975), and followed that up with Chicago X (Columbia/Chicago), released in 1976, which contained the #1 single “If You Leave Me Now”, which also won a Grammy award that year. Chicago XI (Columbia/Chicago) followed the next year, with the hit song “Baby, What A Big Surprise”. Even though the band had achieved an enormous amount of success, their was tension in the band, mostly because the band was chaffing at the control Guercio still commanded over their career, but also because, in a supposedly democratic band, most of the hits the band had been scoring in recent years were more ballad-y songs sung by Cetera, and he was in turn seen as something like the leader of the band. In 1978, the group fired Guercio, but another shock to their system was also about to occur. While cleaning a supposedly unloaded gun at his home, Terry Kath accidentally shot and killed himself in January of 1978. Kath was a major influence on the music and direction of the group, and his passing just about broke the band up, but after a period of mourning, they decided to carry on. After holding auditions, the group chose guitarist Donnie Dacus to fill Kath's spot in the band. The band pursued a slightly harder-rocking sound for their next release, Hot Streets (Columbia/Chicago)(1978), and it was also the first album to feature the band member's faces on the front cover. Though the album didn't do quite as well as their previous albums, they did score a hit single with the song “Alive Again”. Chicago 13 was released in 1979, and didn't include any big hits and didn't make it even into the Top 20 on the American album charts. After the release of Chicago 13, Dacus left the band, and was replaced by guitarist Chris Pinnick. Chicago XIV (Columbia/Chicago) was released in 1980, and sold so poorly that it didn't even reach gold status. After the albums release, de Oliveira also left the band. The group released another collection, Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Columbia/Chicago) in 1981, but even that failed to make much of a dent on the charts. Soon after, the band left Columbia and started searching for new methods for returning the band back to the charts.
The group did three things; they started working with producer/songwriter David Foster, who favored more ballads, usually sung by Cetera, they also hired multi-instrumentalist Bill Champlin, the former leader of the Sons of Champlin, to bring his formidable skills and gruff singing voice to the band, and they signed a new contract with Full Moon Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. The first fruit of their new working arrangements was Chicago 16 (Full Moon/Warner Bros.), released in 1982, which contained the group's comeback hit “Hard To Say I'm Sorry”. The group followed in 1984 with Chicago 17 (Full Moon/Warner Bros.), which was an even bigger success, and contained the hit singles “Hard Habit To Break” and “You're The Inspiration”. Most of the songs were sung by Cetera, and it again caused tension within the band that he was seen as the star. In 1985, Cetera bid farewell to Chicago, and was soon followed by Pinnick. The group replaced Cetera with bassist/vocalist Jerry Scheff, who, while he was much younger than most of the rest of the band, had a vocal style that closely resembled Cetera's, and was able to blend in rather quickly and well with Chicago's sound. The group continued on, releasing Chicago 18 (Full Moon/Warner Bros.) in 1986, and while it didn't do as well as some of the band's recent successes, the following album, 1988's Chicago 19 (Full Moon/Warner Bros.) went platinum, and contained three big hits, “I Don't Want To Live Without Your Love”, “Look Away”, and “You're Not Alone”. The band scored another hit with the compilation Greatest Hits 1982-1989 (Full Moon/Warner Bros.)(1989), which went on to sell over five million copies.
Chicago went through more changes at the beginning of the '90's, losing original drummer Danny Seraphine, and replacing him with Tris Imboden, and adding guitarist DaWayne Bailey to the line-up. Chicago Twenty 1 (Full Moon/Warner Bros.), released in 1991, failed to sell well at all, and when the band tried to deliver another album to the label, it was rejected, and the band soon parted ways with Full Moon. Though the group's recent albums weren't selling well, the group was still a major draw every summer on the road, so they spent the next few years touring until they could secure another deal. In 1995, Bailey left the band, and was replaced by guitarist Keith Howland, and in the same year, the group regained the rights to all of their old material, and set up their own Chicago Records label to reissue their back catalog. 1995 also saw the band sign a new deal with Giant Records, and the group tried something new in recording an album of big-band standards called Night & Day (Giant/Warner Bros.)(1995). With control of their back catalog, they were now able to combine songs from their Columbia and Warner Bros. years, and so next released the collections The Heart Of Chicago 1967-1997 (Warner Bros.)(1997) and The Heart Of Chicago, Vol. 2 1967-1998 (Warner Bros.)(1998). Both sets also included a couple of new songs the band had recorded. These collections were followed up with Chicago 25: The Christmas Album (Chicago)(1998) and Chicago XXVI: The Live Album (Chicago)(1999). In 2002, the band started leasing their back catalog to Rhino Records so that the albums could be remastered with bonus tracks. The remasters generated new interest in the veteran band, and so Rhino and Chicago released the double-disc collection The Very Best Of Chicago: Only The Beginning in 2002, gathering up tracks from throughout the band's long career. Chicago finally released an album of all new material, Chicago XXX (Rhino) in 2006, and followed that up with releasing the album that Warner Bros. rejected in 1993, Stone Of Sisyphus: XXXII (Rhino). Chicago continue their summer tradition of touring, and show no sign of slowing down.
