During the rock era, Chicago stood among the era's most enduring ensembles, accumulating twenty-one Billboard Top Ten hits from 1970 to 1990 while navigating the exits of pivotal members and adjusting to shifting musical currents. Few rock outfits faced such challenges, particularly one that assigned horns a role equal to or greater than that of guitar. Building on the foundation laid by Blood, Sweat & Tears, the group first explored jazz-tinged progressive rock, treating each side of a vinyl record as a broad canvas for exploratory compositions. The band soon distilled that expansive approach into tightly constructed pop singles, achieving early-seventies breakthroughs with driving tracks such as "25 or 6 to 4" and "Beginnings" while also demonstrating skill with gentler melodies on "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "Saturday in the Park." As the decade advanced, emphasis shifted toward ballads, with bassist Peter Cetera delivering such enduring numbers as "If You Leave Me Now," "Baby, What a Big Surprise," and "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." After Cetera's mid-eighties departure, the group maintained momentum under new lead vocalist Bill Champlin, who fronted the chart-topping "Look Away" along with "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" and additional singles. Although hits diminished in the nineties, Chicago retained its stature as a pop and rock institution, with founding keyboardist Robert Lamm, trumpeter Lee Loughnane, and trombonist James Pankow steering a changing lineup through consistent tours and recordings.
Chicago emerged at the intersection of two converging musical traditions in mid-sixties Chicago, Illinois: one rooted in academic study and another drawn from street-level performance. Reed player Walter Parazaider, born March 14, 1945, in Chicago, trumpeter Lee Loughnane, born October 21, 1946, in Chicago, and trombonist James Pankow, born August 20, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, all studied music at DePaul University. They supplemented their training by performing in local clubs across R&B and Irish repertoires, where they met guitarist Terry Kath, born January 31, 1946, in Chicago and deceased January 23, 1978, in Los Angeles, California, and drummer Danny Seraphine, born August 28, 1948, in Chicago. Most rock bands of the period followed the Beatles' guitar-bass-drums configuration, reserving brass for R&B, yet after the Beatles featured horns on the 1966 track "Got to Get You into My Life," pop followed suit. By year's end, the Buckinghams, a Chicago band managed by Parazaider's acquaintance James William Guercio, scored a national hit with the horn-driven "Kind of a Drag," which reached number one in February 1967.
That success prompted Parazaider and his colleagues to form their own ensemble. On February 15, 1967, Parazaider convened the prospective members at his apartment and invited organist and vocalist Robert Lamm, born October 13, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York. Lamm joined and offered to handle bass lines via the organ's foot pedals, a technique he had yet to master. The group assembled a repertoire of James Brown and Wilson Pickett songs, rehearsed in Parazaider's parents' basement, and began performing locally as the Big Thing. Soon they expanded across the Midwest. Guercio, now a Columbia Records staff producer, urged them to compose original material; Kath and especially Lamm responded, soon joined by Pankow as a primary songwriter. The lineup became a septet when Peter Cetera, born September 13, 1944, in Chicago, left rival Midwest band the Exceptions to supply vocals and bass, creating an unusual three-lead-singer configuration of Lamm's smooth baritone, Kath's gruff baritone, and Cetera's flexible tenor. In late winter 1968 Guercio deemed the group prepared; in June he funded their relocation to Los Angeles.
Guercio's influence as manager and producer proved substantial from the start and later created tension. The members initially accepted shared living quarters, rigorous rehearsals, and the name Chicago Transit Authority. Guercio leveraged his Columbia standing to secure a contract and permitted the newcomers a double-album debut in exchange for reduced royalties, while insisting the cover feature only a logo rather than photographs.
Chicago Transit Authority appeared in April 1969, entered the charts in May, and climbed into the Top 20 by July despite lacking a hit single. Free-form FM stations embraced the set, turning it into an underground success that earned gold certification by year's end and ultimately exceeded two million copies sold. In September 1969 the band performed at the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Festival; a low-fidelity recording of the concert later surfaced repeatedly on bootleg and reissue collections including Anthology, Beat the Bootleggers: Live 1967, Beginnings, Beginnings Live, Chicago, and Chicago Live. When the actual Chicago Transit Authority objected to the name, Guercio shortened it to Chicago. The follow-up double album, released at the start of 1970 and later known as Chicago II, entered the Top Ten in its second week even before the single "Make Me Smile" reached the Hot 100. Although the band initially resisted editing the suite excerpt for AM radio, the single reached the Top Ten, as did its successor "25 or 6 to 4." The album quickly attained gold and later platinum status. In fall 1970 Columbia extracted "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" from the debut album, yielding a third consecutive Top Ten hit.
Chicago III, another double album, arrived at the beginning of 1971, narrowly missed number one, and earned a third gold and eventual platinum certification. Its singles fell short of the Top Ten, prompting Columbia to pair "Beginnings" from the first album with "Colour My World" from the second; the combination became the group's fourth Top Ten single. A four-disc live set, Chicago at Carnegie Hall, followed and reached the Top Five while selling more than a million copies despite its size. The band itself favored Live in Japan, recorded in February 1972 and initially issued only in that country. Chicago V, a single-disc album released in July 1972, spent nine weeks at number one en route to double-platinum sales, propelled by the gold-selling Top Ten single "Saturday in the Park." Chicago VI appeared a year later, repeated the commercial pattern, and yielded the Top Ten singles "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" and "Just You 'n' Me."
The next Top Ten entry, "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long," preceded Chicago VII in late winter 1974. The album became the band's third straight number-one release and another million-seller, with "Call on Me" as its second Top Ten single. Chicago VIII, which elevated sideman percussionist Laudir de Oliveira to full membership, surfaced in spring 1975, produced the Top Ten hit "Old Days," and became the fourth consecutive chart-topping album. After the 1975 compilation Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits came Chicago X, which missed number one yet sold more than two million copies largely due to the Grammy-winning number-one single "If You Leave Me Now." Chicago XI, issued in late summer 1977, reached the Top Ten, sold a million copies, and generated the Top Five hit "Baby, What a Big Surprise."
Beneath the surface, however, tensions mounted. Ballads sung by Cetera increasingly dominated the hits, frustrating the other members' broader ambitions. Critical recognition remained elusive, and press commentary often highlighted Guercio's controlling role. The band resolved to dismiss Guercio and prove its independence. Shortly afterward, Kath, an avid gun collector, died in an accidental shooting on January 23, 1978. Although not widely recognized outside the group, Kath had exerted significant influence on direction; his loss proved irreplaceable. The remaining members closed ranks and continued.
Guitarist Donnie Dacus joined following auditions and participated in the twelfth album, released without a numeral as Hot Streets and featuring the bandmembers' images on the cover for the first time. The harder-rock orientation signaled by the Top 20 single "Alive Again" retained core fans, yet the album became Chicago's first since 1969 to miss the Top Ten. Chicago 13 subsequently fell outside the Top 20. Dacus departed; guitarist Chris Pinnick entered as a sideman and later achieved full-member status. Chicago XIV, the final album featuring de Oliveira, appeared in 1980 and failed to reach gold status. With the 1981 release of the fifteenth album, the underperforming Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, the band left Columbia and sought a fresh approach.
They found it with writer-producer David Foster, who refocused on power ballads delivered by Cetera. Multi-instrumentalist Bill Champlin, born May 21, 1947, in Oakland, California, and formerly of the Sons of Champlin, joined as a full member; his gruff voice enabled him to assume parts previously sung by Kath. Signed to the Warner Bros. imprint Full Moon, the band released Chicago 16 in spring 1982. Prefaced by the number-one single "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," the album restored million-selling Top Ten status. Chicago 17, issued in spring 1984, proved even more successful, ultimately certified for six million copies by 1997 and spawning the Top Five hits "Hard Habit to Break" and "You're the Inspiration."
Renewed success elevated Cetera to solo-star status; he departed for a solo career in 1985. Pinnick also left around the same time, and the band did not immediately replace him on guitar. Jason Scheff, the twenty-three-year-old son of longtime Elvis Presley sideman Jerry Scheff, assumed bass duties and supplied the tenor range needed to replicate Cetera's vocal parts. The split produced a temporary commercial dip: Chicago 18, released in 1986, earned only gold status despite the Top Five single "Will You Still Love Me?" Recovery followed with Chicago 19 in spring 1988. Its singles included the Top Five "I Don't Want to Live Without Your Love," the number-one "Look Away," and the Top Ten "You're Not Alone," while the album achieved platinum certification. The track "What Kind of Man Would I Be?" from the album later appeared on the 1989 compilation Greatest Hits 1982-1989 (counted as the twentieth album), reached the Top Five, and helped the collection surpass five million copies by 1997.
At the turn of the decade, guitarist DaWayne Bailey joined and original drummer Danny Seraphine departed, replaced by Tris Imboden. Chicago Twenty 1, released at the start of 1991, sold modestly, and Warner rejected the subsequent recording, although several tracks later surfaced on compilations. Chicago sustained a dedicated audience that supported annual summer tours. In 1995 Keith Howland succeeded Bailey on guitar. That year the band regained rights to its Columbia catalog, launched Chicago Records for reissues, and signed with Giant Records to issue its twenty-second album, Night & Day, a collection of big-band standards that entered the Top 100.
In 1998 Chicago Records released Chicago 25: The Christmas Album, followed in 1999 by Chicago XXVI: The Live Album. The compilation The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning underscored the music's continuing appeal. Capitalizing on renewed interest, the band returned in 2006 with Chicago XXX on Rhino. Two years later Rhino issued the previously rejected 1993 Warner album as Stone of Sisyphus: XXXII. Chicago maintained regular touring through the late 2000s and recorded with producer Phil Ramone for the 2011 holiday album O Christmas Three, also known as Chicago XXXIII. During the early 2010s the group performed frequently and undertook joint tours with the Doobie Brothers. In May 2013 the band announced work on its next studio album and released several new songs throughout the year. They also performed a medley of classics with Robin Thicke at the 2014 Grammy Awards. The resulting collection, Chicago XXXVI: Now, marked their first set of original material in eight years upon its July 2014 release.
Chicago received induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016; Peter Cetera chose not to attend. The two-hour documentary Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago premiered on CNN in 2017. The band's fourth holiday album, Chicago Christmas, appeared in 2019. In 2020 Chicago was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor followed by further lineup adjustments. Lamm, Loughnane, and Pankow guided the refreshed ensemble through its thirty-eighth album, Born for This Moment, released in July 2022.
