Who sang backing vocals on Chicago’s ‘Wishing You Were Here’?
Amid the so-called soft rock chapter of 1970s music, Chicago stands tall with the very best of ‘em.
Not that their fans would agree. The fact is, while the Eagles dealt in country-flecked Los Angeles soundtracks and Toto vocal harmony pop fodder, Chicago wielded a serious brass bluster that kept their glossy summonings entirely tethered to the decade’s dreaded yacht rock tag, evoking some Earth, Wind & Fire R&B in their blue-eyed croon.
Nonetheless, it’s likely Chicago was firmly in punk’s target when they lit their insurrectionist fire. Not that they’d worry. Like your Totos, REO Speedwagons and Steely Dans, frontman Peter Cetera and the band would enjoy enormous success into the 1980s with the day’s twangy power ballads, ‘Hard to Say I’m Sorry’ topping the charts and standing as a staple of adult-contemporary radio of the era.
Like many of their peers, they had been in the game for years. Discounting their The Big Thing predecessor, Chicago had been trucking since the late 1960s, releasing a litany of fairly successful records before stumbling into their late-career golden era.
Along the way, they’d manage to recruit one of the biggest names in rock and pop to lend a backing hand to their Top 20 hit from 1974.
So who sang backing vocals on ‘Wishing You Were Here’?
For their sixth LP, Chicago VII, the band decided to once again hole up in Colorado’s Caribou Ranch studio after Chicago V, as would be the trend for the next three albums. It turned out that during the sessions for ‘Wishing You Were Here’, three of The Beach Boys were trying to get an album off the ground in their post-Holland lumber.
At the time, California’s former hitmakers had lapsed into something of a novelty act, riding the waves of their former surfing glories, creative “genius” Brian Wilson out of action and in the throes of his mental health issues. What transpired was a bulk of material recorded that never saw the official light of day, save ‘Good Timin’’ and ‘It’s OK’ on later records.
Yet, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson were on hand to offer their vocal harmony croons on ‘Wishing You Were Here’. It’s a perfect pop capsule of the time, as well as documenting both bands’ trajectories, Chicago on their way to radio conquest, while the surf legends swirling in a fairly drab dead end nowhere near their Pet Sounds majesty.
Such a partnership would prove fateful. Both The Beach Boys and Chicago would embark on the Beachago tour not long after, reviving the dual live shows in 1989, as well as The Brian Wilson Band playing Chicago numbers as late as 2022, with Jardine featured on stage.
It wasn’t just Chicago that members of The Beach Boys were collaborating with. Naming his 1974 album after the studio, Elton John’s Caribou counted the ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ Billboard number two, featuring Carl, Bruce Johnston, and an uncredited Brian on the Rocket Man fan favourite.
