One of the reasons I believe that 1980’s Chicago XIV is a lot better than the preceding 13 is because the band returned to using their traditional composers.
There was no music to be found from fringe songwriters like Walt Parazaider, Laudir D’Olivera, or even Lee Loughnane – who, in my opinion, fancies himself to be Bob Dylan. Also, Chicago used a guitar player in Chris Pinnick who sounded more like late co-founder Terry Kath than the recently departed Donnie Dacus – and that is a very good thing.
When I first heard this poorly received album many years ago, I smiled because I believed Chicago was partially on its way back to respectability, if not critical acclaim. Nothing on Chicago XIV is outright terrible, even if most of it was not hall of fame-worthy. Considering how far they’d sunk, that statement is meant as praise.
That said, “Where Did the Lovin’ Go” is one of the less-interesting tracks to be found on this long player. If I heard it on the radio I wouldn’t change the station, or hit the skip button if listening to it on CD. Still, as I said to my series co-writers about another song from this album, “Where Did The Lovin’ Go” is just “there.” There’s nothing remarkable about Peter Cetera’s vocal, his lyrics, or the arrangement. It’s nice that the horn section was involved too, but their contribution only equals what the rest of the group did here.
“Where Did the Lovin’ Go” is not embarrassing. It may not have won Chicago any new fans, but it shouldn’t have alienated the ones they still had.
