Chicago

Chicago is an American rock band and is deemed one of the most successful Grammy winning American bands from Chicago, Illinois. The band was first conceived in the mid-60’s consisting of band members Walter Parazaider (March 14, 1945) as their reed player, James Pankow (August 20, 1974) as their trombonist and Lee Loughnane (October 21, 1946) as their trumpeter. Additions to the band came later with Terry Kath (January 31, 1946) as their guitarist, Danny Seraphine (August 28, 1984) as their drummer. The band originally performed under the name ‘The Big Thing’ and by the grace of their longtime friend, James William Guercio from Columbia Records, jumped to manage the band. Chicago moved out to Los Angeles and renamed their band to Chicago Transit Authority. Their first record, also a double album, titled ‘Chicago Transit Authority’ was released in 1969 and charted at number 17 on the Billboard 200, sold over a million copies by 1970, became certified platinum and nominated the group for a Grammy award for Best New Artist of the Year. The success of the band had only just begun and went on to release several successful albums such as ‘Chicago’ in 1970 (Grammy nominated twice), ‘Chicago III’ in 1971 (certified platinum by 1986), four volumes of ‘Chicago at Carnegie Hall’ followed by ‘Chicago VI, VII and VIII’ which all made it number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart along with ‘Chicago X’ which was Grammy nominated and won two American Music Awards. Unfortunately, guitarist Terry Kath passed in 1978 and the band had to transition to another lead guitarist, Donnie Dacus and released ‘Hot Streets’ in 1969. In 1981, the band underwent large changes and writer/producer David Foster joined Chicago and was signed to a new label, Full Moon Records under Warner Bros Records. By 1982, Chicago released ‘Chicago 16’ followed by ‘Chicago 17’ in 1984 which was their biggest selling album, turning six times platinum and receiving two more Grammy nominations. The band went on to add 11 more albums to their discography, from 1986 to 2019. Currently, Chicago has sold more than 40 million units around the U.S., 18 platinum reocrds, 8 multi platinum records and have received 10 Grammy nominations over the course of their 50 year long music career.