They kept having hits for another ten years, so it seems like it was a success.
Posted on 11/01/2024 4:22:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Before producer David Foster completed their transformation into pop stars, Chicago had built an early reputation as a tough jazz-rocking outfit.
Peter Cetera was just one of their vocalists, rather than the honey-sweet ballad-singing frontman. He actually played bass. Robert Lamm, one of Chicago's other prominent singer-songwriters, served as principal pianist.
Foster changed all of that, beginning with 1982's Chicago 16.
"I get it — I get why they were unhappy," Foster tells the Los Angeles Times. "I just came in like a young, arrogant barnstormer: 'OK, I'm playing all the piano now,' and Peter let me play the synth-bass on everything because he didn't want to play bass anymore."
So, suddenly Chicago's new producer was also "the bass player, I was the piano player, I was the co-songwriter. I was the producer, I was the arranger for the most part," Foster added. "I didn't know then that I was making them be more like me than I was trying to be like them."
These changes connected with a new generation of listeners: Chicago 16 became a platinum-selling Top 10 smash – their first since 1977's Chicago XI. Under Foster's guidance, the hits kept coming, too: 1984's Chicago 17 was even bigger, reaching the Top 5 while selling more than six million copies in the U.S. alone.
Cetera clearly had no objections, as he continued to work with Foster even after going solo. Foster stuck around to help his old group move on: The subsequent Chicago 18 was a gold-selling Top 40 hit in 1986.
'I Don't Blame Them for Being Pissed Off'
But something was admittedly lost along the way.
"I was trying to imitate them, but I guess more of me came out than should have – and they got annoyed because they didn't want to be a ballad band," Foster now admits. "I mean, my mission with Chicago was I wanted to remind them of their greatness. I was such a fan in the late '60s when it was the [Chicago] Transit Authority. But by Chicago 16, they'd just forgotten their greatness, that's all. Bottom line is: I don't blame them for being pissed off."
Four Foster-produced Chicago singles – all ballads – also reached the Top 5, including the chart-topping "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." But even that failed to change some minds about this new change in direction.
"No, because they'd had a ton of success before," Foster added. "They were so revered — they were critic's darlings, for the most part. I [messed] that up."
They kept having hits for another ten years, so it seems like it was a success.
I owned a house in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles from 1966 to 1995.
In the yearly 70’s-—There was a house 4 away from me on a 1/2 cul de sac that seems to have bands in their garage with frequency.
Came home from work one late afternoon & was very tired. Kids from the neighborhood were sitting on my CURVE-—and a band was playing VERY LOUDLY in the open garage of that house—wrong me. I CALLED THE LAPD.
They came & broke it up. KIDS were MAD at me. IT WAS CHICAGO-—before they were really big. Told the kids if they wanted to have a NOISE fight, I could get a top fuel dragster over to my driveway the next day & FIRE IT UP.
THEN we will see WHO can more noise.
A second time the same house had the same PROBLEM-—THE cops came & told them to shut it down. As the cops were telling me they had shut it down, one of those IDIOTS grabbed the mic, turned up the amp & YELLED :”F U” at me & the cops.
Cops went right back & ARRESTED THEM ALL.
He just wants some attention.
Interesting. I have to say that never followed them terribly closely. I knew that their early stuff was harder and had a strong jazz flavor. And I knew that Terry Kath died. And then they seemed to get “commercial” and have huge hits. I assumed they decided to change direction because they no longer had Kath in the band. But maybe it was really the new producer.
You sold it in 1995???? I'm sorry.
If you liked 80s ballads. Without the horn backbone they were blah.
I wish you’d have done all that after they flipped to making soft rock dreck.
I’m just saying, not many bands can be that successful over 20 years. They changed direction, but they lasted a long time.
Yeah, the ladies love Cetera. And if you love the ladies, by default, you love Cetera.
I saw the title and thought finally, some politician who had power in Chicago admits he wrecked Chicago.
Oh well, hope for another day.
Meanwhile, this guy was a jerk.
True story. Back in about 1981 or 82 they played Fayetteville, Ark. They stayed at the local Hilton where I worked for an entire week.
My future wife and her sister both worked there also. My wife hung out with Cetera while her sister was with Lamm.
I would pin Chicago V as the point where they went soft.
Cetera sporting the Bauhaus tshirt while singing an 80’s ballad. Culture clash.
Loved Chicago up through the 3rd album.
After that I just liked them and moved on to jazz/rock fusion and not for top 40 music.
...which was probably his subtle motivation. “This song is lame; but have no doubt that I have kickass taste in music.”
I noticed the changes but I didn’t know this story. I like most of what they have done and, as an old trumpet player, I like the horns.
I love early Chicago. They, along with Steely Dan ,were my gateway into jazz. However, after Terry died they were never the same. They became chick music.
Well, no one knows Chicago like “Leonid and Friends”, and they have no problem with the 1982 stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKhauqqEYpo
I remember the year because I was a freshman at U of Chicago when it “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” was topping the charts, ESPECIALLY in Chicago. I heard it played constantly during orientation week. By the end of the year, it was all “Flashdance (What a Feeling)” and “Every Breath You Take”. WBBM radio had a four song rotation, it seemed.
I am not particularly a Chicago fan, but Leonid and Friends recreation (not just a cover) of their work gave me a better appreciation of the band’s work, and I will take my wife to see them later this month.
Terry Kath was the Soul of Early Chicago until he died.
Chicago had no choice but to change direction after Kath died.
Foster owes no apologies to anyone.
To my knowledge Chicago is still touring doing what they love to do.
Chicago 17 is the biggest seller of any Chicago album. It’s practically unheard of that a record made some 15 years after their first album is their biggest seller. Of course over time, those 80s albums didn’t age as well as the early stuff.
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