“It didn’t kill me”: the producer Chicago were scared to work with
It’s often said that staying true to yourself in music and maintaining a level of consistency is what makes you stand out, and in the case of Chicago, nothing screamed consistency more than their decision to stick almost exclusively to releasing albums under a numerical cataloguing system.
Not only does the fact that they’ve reached 36 records with this naming convention stand out, but it also underlines their longevity as a group, still able to keep their identity strong after almost six decades of being together. That doesn’t mean that everything has stayed the same, though, and with multiple personnel changes over the years and external pressures leading the band to evolve with the times, Chicago have actually undergone multiple major shifts to combat this, and it could have brought things to a complete halt had it not gone well.
The band entered the 1980s having undergone perhaps the most seismic of these shifts towards the end of the previous decade. The tragic passing of lead guitarist Terry Kath, a man who was hailed by none other than Jimi Hendrix as the greatest he’d ever heard and someone who was integral to the development of the band’s sound, had rocked the group, and they were having perhaps the biggest struggle in their career to date in terms of making any commercial headway.
By 1982, they’d already parted ways with Kath’s replacement, Donnie Dacus, and also decided that for the run of albums from Chicago 16 to Chicago 18, they ought to work with someone with a bit more pop nous when it came to the production. Bringing in David Foster for his services, the band managed to make a significant comeback with Chicago 16, going platinum for the first time in four albums and producing their second number one single in ‘Hard to Say I’m Sorry’.
That being said, this return to form was far from being an enjoyable experience, especially as far as keyboard player Robert Lamm was concerned. “Hindsight is a great view,” he explained in a 2019 interview with Long Island Weekly. “Somehow, we lived through that. But, I also have come to learn from that experience.”
With what had previously been a stable lineup thrown into chaos by Kath’s untimely death in 1978, Lamm felt as though no producer in the world would have been able to rescue the band from what they were having to go through on an emotional and personal level, despite recognising Foster’s ability.
“I really feel that David did what he was hired to do,” he said, “which was almost impossible because he was taking a band that had been very successful internationally. But we were down for the count, as far as our career was concerned, for a number of reasons.”
The bottom line is that Chicago didn’t break up, and while it may have been one of the rockiest periods of their existence, with vocalist Peter Cetera also choosing to leave the band after working on Chicago 17 in 1984, Foster somehow created a sense of stability by guiding them through three albums at a time when they could so easily have given up. “I was really troubled going through it,” Lamm added. “But now I look at it and think that it didn’t kill me, and it all worked out okay. I have nothing but respect for David.”
It may have been agonising to invite someone new into the fold to drag them through one of the toughest periods in their career, but there’s nothing wrong with having a period like this if you’re able to survive it and live to tell the tale.
