For many Chicago fans, 1980’s Chicago XIV is an album at a crossroads.
Following the dismal and failed foray into disco music that was 1979’s Chicago 13, the band turned to Tom Dowd for production. Dowd, a well-regarded producer with a rock pedigree, was brought in to attempt to make the band relevant in a rapidly changing music environment.
Between the release of 1978’s Hot Streets and XIV, the music scene had shifted from rock to easy listening to disco to new wave and punk. Chicago again attempted to rebrand itself with the release of XIV, with mixed results.
“Song For You,” the third song on the album, was written and sung by bassist/vocalist Peter Cetera. This is one of five tracks on XIV that were written or co-written by Cetera, essentially foreshadowing his increasing role in the band. The song is a simple ballad with a vocal performance by Cetera that seems to stretch the lower end of his vocal range during the verses – and then reverts to his signature tenor during the chorus. In fact, several Chicago fans have said that they didn’t know it was even him singing it at first.
Released as a single that failed to chart in 1980, “Song For You” is simply constructed and does not follow a recognizable verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure. The instrumentation is stripped down, a common theme on Chicago XIV. Lyrically, the track is rather bland and uninspired. Cetera turns in a satisfactory vocal performance, but the whole song retains too much of the feel of a demo track that needed more work and production to really make it stand out.
Unfortunately, on an album that was predicated on trying to strip down the sound, this never happened. Instead, we are left with a decent melody, a nice acoustic guitar solo, but little musical diversity to catch the listener. Once the first verse-chorus is done, there is little reason to listen any further.
- Chicago, “90 Degrees and Freezing” from ‘Chicago XXX’ (2006): Saturdays in the Park - October 23, 2021
- Chicago, “Show Me a Sign” from ‘Heart of Chicago Vol. II’ (1998): Saturdays in the Park - August 14, 2021
- Chicago, “Sophisticated Lady” from ‘Night & Day: Big Band’ (1995): Saturdays in the Park - May 29, 2021
