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Chicago’s journey from jazz-influenced rock to pop ballads made their music a staple on the high school dance DJ circuit. But there was a reason – throughout the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, Chicago released 20 Top 10 singles and 12 Top 10 albums, selling over 120 million albums during their career.

 

When 4 friends from Chicago’s DePaul University got together in 1967, they recruited other musicians in town to complete their band, which was called The Missing Links, and later The Big Thing. They were unique for a rock band in that they had their own horn section (which was good, because they rehearsed in the basement of the saxophone player’s mother’s house.) They were soon signed by manager Jim Guercio, and would shortly after enlist vocalist and bass player Peter Cetera from the band the Exceptions. His smooth, high vocals would help give Chicago it’s unique sound.

 

Under Guercio’s direction, the band changed their name to The Chicago Transit Authority, and they hit the Los Angeles club scene before going off to New York to begin recording their first album. They changed their name to Chicago in 1970 after receiving legal threats from the actual Chicago Department of Transportation. After their jazz-influenced, double album debut was released, they opened for artists such as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. As their career continued, their sound became more focused on soft rock and pop.

 

Chicago released 5 albums between ’72 and ’75. Most of their albums were simply titled with a sequential number – Chicago I, Chicago II, and so forth. The album art also stayed in the same format, each featuring a different graphic design of the band’s logo. The singles they put out were emotional ballads that hit a chord with their audience - "Color My World," "Wishin' You Were Here" (featuring backing vocals from Al Jardine and Carl and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, whom Guercio also managed at the time), and “If You Leave Me Now,” which went to number one and earned the boys a gold single in 1967. Their album, Chicago X, won the Best Album Grammy in 1977.

 

That same year, Guercio and the band stopped working together, and in 1978, guitarist and founding member Terry Kath accidentally shot and killed himself while handling a gun that he owned. Jimmy Hendrix had once called Terry a better guitarist than himself. The band regrouped to decide how to move forward, and recruited Dacus (a former player with Stephen Stills) on guitar, and then Bill Champlin. In 1982 the band found success again with the #1 single, “Hard To Say I’m Sorry,” from the album, Chicago 16.

 

Peter Cetera left the band in 1985, and produced some solo hits duetting with Amy Grant, Cher and Abba's Agnetha Faltskog. He was replaced by Jason Scheff, the son of Jerry Scheff, Elvis Presley’s longtime bass player. Chicago got back the rights to their 16 Columbia albums from the label in 1995, and started to sell their back catalog through their own Chicago Records label. They continue to perform live, including high profile gigs for President Clinton in the early ‘90’s. In 1998, they released a new album, Chicago 25.

 

They’ve gone through name changes, style changes, and personnel changes, but good songwriting and tight musicianship has taken Chicago through 3 decades of making music.