The 1974 Chicago song that featured The Beach Boys
A marriage of surf-pop and hard rock couldn’t sound more incongruous, but in 1974, The Beach Boys and Chicago made it a reality on ‘Wishing You Were Here’, a track taken from Chicago VII, with Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys all providing vocals on the break-up ballad.
To the surprise of almost all fans of both bands watching on, the collaboration actually worked far better than anyone might have expected. Chicago’s smooth horn-driven production gave the track a polished soft-rock foundation, while the Wilson brothers and Jardine added the layered harmonies that had long defined The Beach Boys’ sound. The result was a track that blended Chicago’s sophisticated arrangement style with the sun-drenched vocal warmth of the California group.
The two bands were brought together by their shared manager, Jim Guerico, who was not only moonlighting as a bass player for The Beach Boys but had a real hand in reviving their commercial viability by setting up the collaboration.
On Guercio’s influence, Dennis said: “Well, I think we were already coming back as a concert band when he joined us, but we have a great respect for him – and we also like Chicago’s music”. They liked it so much, in fact, that they would join forces on the co-headlined Beachago tour, which utilised Chicago’s monopoly on stadium shows and spearheaded some serious 1960s nostalgia with a timely Beach Boys resurgence.
The gigs were typically split into three sections: an hour for each band to play to their dedicated fan base, which was then topped off by a raucous 45-minute jam on stage. When both bands joined forces, they’d power through classics like ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’, sending electrified fans home with a cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’.
Thanks to the shrewd moves of Guerico and the fervent reception to these shows, The Beach Boys, once considered outdated and twee, found themselves in favour with yet more rock bands following the tour, putting them back on the concert circuit and introducing them to a whole subset of newer, younger fans. Following the success of Beachago, they found themselves at Wembley Stadium on the invitation of Elton John and suddenly playing huge arenas that housed massive draws like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The time spent alongside Chicago emboldened them to get back into the studio, with Dennis Wilson explaining how he wanted to spend the next decade working on albums alongside Brian Wilson. “As a Beach Boy, I want to stay with them and stand behind Brian, being a tool for his disposal for the rest of my life no matter whether it’s music or mowing his lawn for him,” he said.
The bands would reunite for a second Beachago tour in 1989, where they played ‘Wishing You Were Here’ as a nod to the beginning of their working relationship. Chicago’s Terry Kath had passed away by this point, and Peter Cetera had left the group – so Beach Boys Carl Wilson and Mike Love stepped in on the lead vocals.
In retrospect, ‘Wishing You Were Here’ represents a fascinating meeting point between two very different corners of American rock. Chicago brought the technical precision of their jazz-rock background, while the Beach Boys provided the melodic instinct and vocal harmony that had made them legends a decade earlier. Together, they created a song that feels less like a novelty collaboration and more like a natural extension of both bands’ evolving sounds during the mid-1970s.
