Shox Turbo mens Bill Champlin's 28 Years with Chic

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Teaming with Foster again to write another track, Champlin sang lead for “It’s Alright,” perhaps the hardest-ro
Chicago 19: Champlin’s Breakthrough
He also sings in “Only You” and “Once in a Lifetime,” but “Please Hold On” is Champlin’s centerpiece in Chicago 17.
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The Band Chicago Remains One of the Most Popular Music Groups
This past August, longtime Chicago band member Bill Champlin announced his departure from the celebrated rock group to concentrate on a solo career. Before Champlin joined, Chicago's future was fraught with uncertainty. In the late guitarist Terry Kath's absence, the fateful disco-stained Chicago 13 and the commercial failure of Chicago XIV were derailing the band’s stature. The ill-fitting Donnie Dacus was in and out quickly as the third vocalist.
With Cetera stealing the show, Champlin co-wrote two other tracks with more harmonic sophistication and horn lines reminiscent of the Chicago albums of the 1970s. “We Can Stop the Hurtin’,” a sort of social call-to-arms, is a song he co-wrote with Robert Lamm [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], who lends his reliable vocals; and “Please Hold On,” in which Champlin shares writing credits with Foster and Lionel Richie, is a laid-back shuffler that especially showcases Champlin’s voice.
But Champlin marks his territory right away here, tag-teaming vocals with Cetera on the funky “Bad Advice” and taking over himself on underrated deep cuts “Follow Me,” co-written with drummer Danny Seraphine, and “Sonny Think Twice,” with Cetera entering in on the coda.
Enter Champlin, who joined Chicago in 1981 at a fortuitous time. It coincided with a switch in record labels and a partnership with mega-producer David Foster, the architect of Chicago’s 1980s renaissance. Bill Champlin’s valuable contributions to the band are worth a bit more than a passing glance.
Champlin once again assumed a secondary role in the band’s major hit from the album, “Will You Still Love Me.” The song all but cemented Chicago as go-to production-heavy balladeers, a formula that succeeded yet strayed from the edginess and invention of earlier Roman-numeral Chicago efforts.
Cetera split with Chicago in 1985, to be replaced for Chicago 18 (1986) by Jason Scheff, whose nearly 24-year tenure far exceeds Cetera’s even though he’s still “the new guy.”
Champlin’s first album with Chicago, Chicago 16 (1982), was the group’s first Foster production. Nobody could escape the two blockbuster hits, “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” and “Love Me Tomorrow.” Peter Cetera, though [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], sang lead on both. In an MTV-centric music industry, Cetera fast became the frontman for Chicago in the first half of the 1980s, relegating the rest of the group to bit players in videos as Cetera took most of the screen time.
Chicago 17 was one of the biggest albums in the hyper-competitive year of 1984, with four singles enjoying heavy airplay. Cetera sang them all except for sharing vocal duties with Champlin on “Hard Habit to Break” (a song, by the way, that rubbed elbows in September 1984 with “Drive” by The Cars, “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], “Missing You” by John Waite, “Lucky Star” by Madonna and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder in a particularly stacked month).
From Sons of Champlin to Chicago: Resurgence with Peter Cetera