How the band Chicago lost its Woodstock slot to Santana
Chicago was booked for Woodstock in 1969, but promoter Bill Graham held a contract letting him reschedule them for his Fillmore West, and he picked exactly the Woodstock dates. Santana, another Graham act, filled the gap and got its breakthrough. Chicago later did fine anyway: more than 100 million records sold.
The band began at a meeting on February 15, 1967, of six Chicago musicians who called themselves the Big Thing and played Top 40 covers in clubs. With two baritone singers and no proper bass, since Robert Lamm's organ pedals were not enough, they recruited the tenor and bassist Peter Cetera late that year. In June 1968 their manager James William Guercio moved them to Los Angeles, where they signed with Columbia and renamed themselves Chicago Transit Authority. Playing regularly at the Whisky a Go Go, they opened for Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, who reportedly praised the horn section and said the guitarist Terry Kath outplayed him.
Their debut in April 1969 was a double album, unusual for a first release, and it sold a million copies by 1970. The real transit authority then threatened legal action, so the name was cut to Chicago. The next album, also a double, included 25 or 6 to 4, whose title refers to a songwriter struggling at around 3:35 in the morning. In 1971 no rock group had ever filled Carnegie Hall every night of a week until they did, and the resulting four-LP live set may have been the best-selling rock box set for 15 years.
They were early masters of branding: the same logo on every cover and albums numbered in Roman numerals. Chicago V in 1972 was their first single-disc album and reached No. 1. By 1974 all seven of their albums sat on the Billboard 200 simultaneously, and they eventually managed five consecutive No. 1 albums. Their only Grammy win came for If You Leave Me Now.
The lineup kept changing. Kath died in 1978, Cetera left in 1985, and drummer Danny Seraphine went in 1990, yet Lamm, Lee Loughnane and James Pankow stayed on. The original members entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Source: Chicago (band)
