My tastes have matured as I’ve grown older, and I admittedly prefer Chicago’s earlier albums over the “second wave” material from the David Foster era. Yet their ’80s catalog still holds a very special place in my heart.
This music was ubiquitous for a child of the ’80s. In the age of cassettes, my older brother let me dub his copies of 1984’s Chicago 17 and 1986’s Chicago 18 onto my own Maxell tape — Chicago 17 on Side 1, 18 on Side 2. I wore the hell out of that cassette until I inevitably purchased my own copies, playing it over and over.
It was pristine, perfect pop music. And that’s what I think many of the detractors of these albums miss: Chicago in the ’70s was a rock ‘n’ roll band with horns. Chicago in the ’80s was a pop band with (sometimes) horns.
Like most adolescents, pop music was my gateway. It’s what initially caught my ear before my taste in music evolved. I can trace my love of Chicago back to one moment — the song I call “the switch.” As you discover many bands, you evolve from casual listener to fan, or you lose interest and move on. The song that flipped my switch for Chicago was “Will You Still Love Me?”
Back when MTV and VH1 played Rock Blocks and “Look Away” was popular, both channels started playing more of Chicago’s prior videos. It wasn’t “Look Away” that caught my ear. (I found and find that to be Diane Warren dime-a-dozen, cookie-cutter drivel, saved only by Bill Champlin’s vocals — but I digress.) Instead, it was “Will You Still Love Me?”
The purposely grainy video, shot in a warehouse with clever camera angles and strategic lighting interspersed with brief clips of attractive models, got its hooks in me and pulled me along for a ride that has continued for most of my life.
The lyrics aren’t anything special, but the performance is spot on. Bill Champlin showed that he had almost as much vocal chemistry with Jason Scheff as he’d had with Peter Cetera. The two of them sing and sound so good together, there is an unspoken promise that this band still had something to offer – despite the departure of a key member.
While many would say that promise was left unfulfilled after the departures of Bill Champlin and later Scheff, I’d argue it was never truly their fault. When Jason Scheff was allowed to sound and sing like himself — when he was allowed to be Jason – he was and is an exceptional vocalist. But when forced night after night, year after year to predominantly sing material made famous by his predecessor, it’s hard to shake a legacy that must have felt like concrete boots.
“Will You Still Love Me?” has a catchy melody. Foster’s arrangement changes the song from merely a ballad into more of an anthem. That started me down the long road of discovering Chicago’s entire back catalog — a back catalog of songs that made me fall in love with them for the first time “Over and Over” again. Even today, when I know that the promise of something brilliant which this song delivered unfortunately remained largely unfulfilled, I still hear that potential. I still hear that promise.
In short — the answer is “yes”: I will still love you, Chicago. I never really stopped. Through the years and all of the life experiences, your music has been a soundtrack to my life. And I continue to smile when I remember that it all started with this song.
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