Nobody foresaw the success of Chicago 16 at the beginning of 1982 — maybe not even the band members themselves. Who could have predicted that this album would go Top 10, that its leadoff single “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” would go to No. 1, and that it would introduce or re-introduce millions to a band that had been hitting the charts for more than 10 years.
And what a great introduction it was. The first seven songs on Chicago 16 mark the strongest stretch of good Chicago music since the much-loved seventh album. There’s not a bad one in the bunch. For whatever reason — new band member, new producer, new record label, using outside songwriters and musicians, recording in Los Angeles rather than Colorado — Chicago was transformed for the better with this album.
The album’s last three songs aren’t as strong, but have their moments nevertheless. “What Can I Say,” a James Pankow-David Foster co-write, builds on the story started in “If You Leave Me Now.” She did leave, and the singer (an unusually marshmallow-mouthed Peter Cetera) is looking back and wondering what went wrong.
The arrangement looks back as well, as Pankow set the title to the same four rising notes that begin “Just You ‘n’ Me.” He also highlights his own trombone playing, and Pankow and Foster add some pleasant jazz chords to the accompaniment.
