In the decades before the 1990s, musical artists’ careers were over once they stopped hitting the singles charts. The group might break up, or a single artist might go into production or session work – or leave the music business altogether.
But in the early 1990s, some of our ’60s and ’70s favorites turned into “heritage artists.” They were still actively pursuing music as a business, but earned most of their money from touring, greatest-hits albums, and back-catalog sales rather than from singles or new projects. They might release an album of original material from time to time, but these mostly were excuses to go touring.
Michael Jackson, Elton John and Prince were still able to put singles in the charts, but superstars like Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Heart, Kool and the Gang, ELO and Starship all became heritage artists before the 1990s were out. Chicago did, too, but when this happened is up for discussion. For me, it was the moment someone decided not to release “If It Were You” from 1991’s Twenty 1 as a single.
Written by bassist Jason Scheff with his brother Darin and Tony Smith, “If It Were You” is outstanding. The lyrics tell a story of a situation everyone’s been through, the tune is singable, and there are just enough horn lines to mark it as a Chicago song. If not for an ill-advised key change that leaves poor Jason Scheff screaming uncomfortably at the top edge of his register on the fade-out, “If It Were You” would be a flawless song. And yet, someone left it as an album track and released dull, lifeless ballads instead.
We are lucky today that we can cherry-pick songs off albums in electronic formats rather than buying the entire album just to get one more song. If you have to hear something from Chicago Twenty 1, I recommend “If It Were You.”
