*Post written by James Wethington, senior library assistant at the University Archives and Special Collections.
Welcome to another fun addition to Guess Who Performed in Evansville! Like last summer, we are looking at bands and musicians who came to Evansville in their hey-day. If you would like to reread the previous entries, check them at “Guess Who Performed in Evansville” on amUSIngArtifacts.
This blog is covering another rock band. This band is still popular and tours today after fifty years together. Here are three fun facts about this band:
- They formed in 1967 and had a different name (just shortening it by two words).
- They have sold more than 100 million records;
- They have produced twenty Top 10 hits and fifteen platinum and multiplatinum albums.
The band is Chicago.
Chicago formed in 1967 and originally started out the Chicago Transit Authority before they shorted the name. The band consisted of seven members: Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Robert Lamm, and Peter Cetera. Their debut album, Chicago Transit Authority, was released in 1969 after the group moved to Los Angeles from Chicago. The 1970’s proved to be good to the band from “Saturday in the Park”, “25 or 6 to 4”, and “Colour My World”, just to name a few. The ‘70’s may have been good to Chicago, but they experienced hardships, such as the death of their guitarist Terry Kath. Nonetheless, they rebounded in the 1980’s with their hit, “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, charting to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Chicago began to experience more obstacles when an original band member, Peter Cetera left the group to start a solo career. After Cetera’s departure, Chicago continued performing and touring (and experienced numerous changes with band members joining and leaving); but Chicago did not reach to the same heights as they did in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Cross view of guitarist and brass and woodwind players, in the band Chicago, 1976. Source: UASC, Gregory Smith collection, MSS 034-0711. 
Close-up of brass and woodwind players in the band Chicago, 1976. Source: UASC, Gregory Smith collection, MSS 034-0702.
Photographs from Greg Smith show Chicago performing in Evansville, there was no information on the concert from the Evansville Press and Evansville Courier newspapers in NewsBank database from the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL). Chicago has since returned to Evansville to perform back in May 2018 at the Aiken Theatre.
For more information, the Greg Smith collection at the University Archives and Special Collections at the David L. Rice Library at the University of Southern Indiana has over 1,500 photographs of Evansville history available online. Take a moment to explore his photographs of athletic events, local businesses, and many more. Stay tuned for our next addition of Guess Who Performed in Evansville.
Reference Consulted
A Chicago story. (n.d.). Chicago. Retrieved April 14, 2020, from https://chicagotheband.com/a-chicago-story/
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