AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Chicago

Artist:Chicago

Song:Beginnings

Album:Group Portrait

Beginnings is from Chicago's debut album when they were called Chicago Transit Authority. After the band name was changed to Chicago, Beginnings was a top ten hit in 1971. I'm going to discuss the jazz origins of their music and why they changed to more pop oriented sound. Chicago began at a 1967 meeting led by saxophonist Walter Parazaider, guitarist Terry Kath and drummer Danny Seraphine. They had played together in bands and were interested in starting their own band. Parazaider was a student at DePaul University and that's where he met trombonist James Pankow and trumpeter Lee Loughnane. Keyboardist and singer Robert Lamm was recruited from Bobby Charles and the Wanderers. They called themselves The Big Thing. They were a cover band playing Chicago clubs. They still needed to find a bassist and a third singer. That's when Peter Cetera joined the band.  Their manager James William Guercio wanted them to write songs and they moved to Los Angeles and changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority. While performing in Los Angeles clubs, They recorded their 1969 debut album Chicago Transit Authority. Beginnings was not a hit at first But it reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was re-re-released. The album was certified 2XPlatinum. Guercio produced. The songwriting was divided between Kath, Lamm and Pankow. Lamm wrote and sang lead on beginnings. The album was popular because at the time, rock bands with horns labeled as jazz rock had become popular. Blood, Sweat & Tears was already on Columbia. The name change to Chicago was for legal reasons. Chicago's next few albums were very successful. But they started to fade when the 1976 single If You Leave Me Now topped the charts. This song was written and sung by Cetera. It signaled a shift in Chicago's sound mostly because jazz rock wasn't popular anymore. Then Terry Kath died of an accidental gunshot on Jan. 23, 1978. And Chicago switched from Columbia to Warner Bros. and Phil Ramone was brought in to produce. So they reinvented themselves as a pop group and were very successful in the 80s. This 4CD budget box set covers Chicago's early years. Here's Chicago performing Beginnings at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA. July 21, 1970. You can watch this entire concert on YouTube.