The first number one single for Chicago
The band that started out as a progressive jazz-rock outfit with political undercurrents was originally named The Missing Links and then The Big Thing and based in the Windy City. In 1968 they moved to Los Angeles and changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority at the suggestion of their manager and producer James William Guercio. Their first album in 1969 bore the same name as the band and, in a rare move for an act’s debut, was a two-disc set.
It yielded a pair of #7 hits with “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” and “Beginnings.” In 1970 the group shortened its name to Chicago.
By 1976, the band had scored 11 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, among them such signature songs as “25 or 6 to 4” (#4), “Colour My World” (#3) and “Saturday in the Park” (#3). But a #1 single had so far been elusive.
Bassist, singer and songwriter Peter Cetera’s ballad “If You Leave Me Now” almost didn’t make the group’s 1976 LP, Chicago X.
Said Guercio at the time: “After 10 albums and 18 singles, and being one of the most successful American groups of the past eight years, it’s exciting because it looks like it will be the group’s first number one single here and also around the world. We’ve never had a record like this, musically, and I am especially proud because it represents a new direction for the group and hopefully a future of successes.”
On October 23, 1976, it hit #1 for the start of a two-week run atop the pop chart. It also became a three-week #1 pop hit in the U.K. and enjoyed chart success in Australia, New Zealand and a number of European markets.
The song won the band its sole Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. It eventually sold 1.4 million copies in the U.S. As a ballad, it also signaled a change to a softer sound that helped Chicago become one of the best-selling groups of all-time with total international sales of more than 100 million records.
Watch Chicago perform their first number one single
In the ensuing years, the band also scored #1 hits with “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” (1982) and “Look Away” (1988). Their impact and success was finally recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when the band was inducted in 2016.
Related: Chicago jazzes up their Rock Hall induction
Chicago have a busy tour calendar. Tickets are available here and here. They released a brilliant, archival concert album recorded at the Kennedy Center in 1971. It’s available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationI’m still convinced this song had something to do with the demise of Terry Kath a bit more than a year later.
The Chocolate Album would have been their SIXTH #1 LP in a row, had Columbia not released the charming but punchless “Another Rainy Day In New York City” (which barely scraped the Top 40) as the lead-off single.
“If You Leave Me Now” was the obvious hit. Terry Kath’s excellent “Once or Twice” would have been a great follow-up.
Here’s some cool trivia about “If You Leave Me Now”. It was bumped from the top spot by Steve Miller’s “Rock n Me”.
Six years later, Miller has his third #1 with “Abracadabra”. Which got knocked off the the top by Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”.
What goes around . . .