When you take into consideration a group that has been playing together for around 30 years then it is almost inevitable that the line-up of that group will probably change on more than one occasion. Chicago are no exception to the rule.

The band was originally formed in - surprise, surprise - Chicago, way back in 1967. Walter Parazaider (saxophone), Lee Loughnane (trumpet), James Pankow (trombone) and Danny Seraphine (drums) all attended the Depaul University in their hometown and after several of them had auditioned for a group called The Executives without success they formed Chicago Transit Authority. This name was, however, later changed to Chicago after complaints and legal threats from the actual Chicago Transportation Company. After recruiting fellow member Robert Lamm (vocals, keyboards) they were spotted by James Guercio who went on to manage them. In November 1967 Chicago gave their debut home performance in Barnaby's which was a club that had just opened up. Ironically enough it was there whilst playing as a warm-up for The Exceptions that they met someone who was to become a further member of the group. At that time Peter Cetera was playing for The Exceptions, but after hearing Chicago he was so impressed that he left them and, by the end of the year, was in the Chicago line-up.

In 1969 the debut album "Chicago Transit Authority" was released and stayed in the U.S charts for a total of 3 years. It was an amazing piece of work, because it was a double album consisting of jazz/pop ballads and rock. In order to promote it the band went on tour and played the supporting act for the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Although the road to fame and fortune now looked rather clear, the year certainly proved to be a painful one for Cetera who was set upon by 4 marines whilst watching a baseball game, the outcome being a broken jaw in 4 places and remaining unconscious in a coma for 2 days. Still, the injuries didn't hold the singer back for too long and by the end of the year he was back on stage enjoying a European tour.

The following year saw single releases of "Make Me Smile" and "25 Or 6 To 4" which were writtn by Pankow and Lamm. The latter incidentally enjoyed mega success in the U. K.

During the 70s Chicago toured intensively and brought out a string of albums. In fact, they started a series of discs quite simply entitled Chicago I, II etc. The series was used throughout their career up until the number 25. They did have a couple of albums with different titles in between, but they mainly stuck to this system. From the LPs in the 70s they had single success as well with hits such as "Saturday In The Park", "Just You'n Me", "I've been Searching So Long" and "Wishin You Were Here" which featured backing vocals from Al Jardine and Carl & Dennis Wilson from The Beach Boys. A further addition was made to the group in 1974 when the percussionist Laudir De Oliveira joined on a full time basis after already previously working with them on earlier material. Chicago teamed up once again with one of The Beach Boys in 1977, this time with Carl Wilson once again on the Cetera-written hit "Baby What A Big Surprise".
In contrast to other bands Chicago were unique, as several of their line-up wrote their songs, which is something that is very rare, especially today. Unfortunately one of the group's leading forces lost his life in January 1978 in a bizarre accident. Whilst playing with what he thought was an unloaded gun at a friends house, Terry Kath shot himself in the head. After this incident it was only through persuasion from another musician, Doc Severinsen, that Chicago decided to carry on.

Luckily for us they did continue, because if they hadn't we would have never got to have heard such classics as "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", "Hard Habit To Break" and "Stay The Night" which featured vocals from Richard Marx and Donny Osmond.

After Kath's death Donnie Dacus was brought in as a permanent replacement from the Stephen Stills Band and once again, in 1982, another member joined, this time Bill Chaplin who had already become well known in the music industry as a vocalist.

In 1985, instead of somebody joining the band however, somebody left, this time it was Cetera. Cetera had already carved out a solo career for himself and in fact went on to record several hits with other singers and well known faces. A few of his solo efforts include "Glory Of Love" (the theme tune from the film The Karate Kid II), "I Stand Alone (with former ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog) and "Feels Like Heaven" (with Chaka Khan).

Chicago also carried on after Cetera's departure and added several new members to their set up. One of these being Jason Scheff who was a former bassist player for Elvis Presley. As I said, the group continued to play on and record, and even as late as 1998 they toured to promote their latest album Chicago 25. But the once Chicago Transit Authority seemed to have lost the way since the 'au-revoir' of Cetera and the glory days seemed to have gone with the above's mentioned departure.