It’s funny that two musicians that closely parallel each other are Phil Collins and Peter Cetera.
Both incredibly talented musicians, Cetera was a beast on bass on the early Chicago albums, but he didn’t do a lot of writing, did sing on hits, but those were mostly written by Robert Lamm. Then he hits paydirt when he wrote “If You Leave Me Now”, and then totally changed the course of the band into a more pop sound, and like Collins eventually became best known for sappy 80s ballads.
Yep. Also David Foster had alot to do with Chicago’s eighties shlock.
Maybe you’re right about Phil not writing much...I haven’t checked writing credits recently.
But yeah, good point about Chicago. And I think the public’s mood changed between the decades as well. The dreary dark and dirty 70s were over, in comes the fresh and sparking neon 80s with Reagan’s optimism.
I like side two of that album - a great jazz groove.