Chicago

Chicago is an American pop rock/jazz fusion band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The band began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Second only to the Beach Boys in terms of singles and albums, Chicago is one of the longest running and most successful U.S. pop/rock and roll groups.

According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading U.S. singles charting group during the 1970s. They have sold over 120 million albums worldwide, scoring 22 Gold, 18 Platinum, and 8 Multi-Platinum albums. Over the course of their career they have charted five No. 1 albums, and have had twenty-one top ten hits.

Beginnings

The band was formed when a group of DePaul University music students began playing a series of late-night jams at clubs on and off campus. They added more members, eventually growing to seven players and went professional as a cover band called The Big Thing. The band featured an unusual and unusually versatile line-up of instrumentalists, including saxophonist Walter Parazaider, trombonist James Pankow, and trumpet player Lee Loughnane, along with more traditional rock instruments — guitarist Terry Kath, keyboardist Robert Lamm, drummer Danny Seraphine, and bassist Peter Cetera (who was the last to join the original group). While gaining some success as a cover band, the group worked on original songs and, in June 1968, moved to Los Angeles, California under the guidance of their friend and manager James William Guercio, and signed with Columbia Records. After the move west, The Big Thing changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority.

Their first record (released in April 1969), the eponymous The Chicago Transit Authority, was an audacious debut: a sprawling double album, virtually unheard of for a rookie band (only "Freak Out!" by The Mothers of Invention and "Loosen Up Naturally" by Sons of Champlin, featuring Bill Champlin, who would later become a member of Chicago, preceded it) that included jazzy instrumentals, extended jams featuring Latin percussion, and experimental, feedback-laden guitar abstraction. The album began to receive heavy airplay on the newly popular FM radio band; it included a number of pop-rock gems — "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", and "Questions 67 and 68" — which would later be edited to a radio-friendly length, released as singles, and eventually become rock radio staples.

Soon after the album's release, the band's name was shortened to simply Chicago, when the actual Chicago Transit Authority threatened legal action.

Studio albums

1969 The Chicago Transit Authority
1970 Chicago
1971 Chicago III
1972 Chicago V
1973 Chicago VI
1974 Chicago VII
1975 Chicago VIII
1976 Chicago X
1977 Chicago XI
1978 Hot Streets
1979 Chicago 13
1980 Chicago XIV
1982 Chicago 16
1984 Chicago 17
1986 Chicago 18
1988 Chicago 19
1991 Twenty 1
1995 Night & Day Big Band
1998 Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album
2006 Chicago XXX
2008 Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus