r/chicagoband

On May 20th, 1969, Chicago bassist and lead vocalist was beaten in a baseball game between LA Dodgers and Chicago Cubs because some 3 jerk Marines hated his long hair.

Peter Cetera ended up with a broken jaw in 3 parts, fenced for 4 months. The blow was so hard he needed reconstructive surgery, he was hospitalized 2 weeks after this.

That trauma is the one that marked his distinctive voice, as if he were clenching his teeth. That nasal voice that now is so recognizable amongst male singers came from others hate and the fear he had of opening his mouth because he thought his jaw was going to pop out again. It wasn’t an incident. It was the consequences of the most pure hate that a human being can have: the hate that comes to someone for being different. For existing.

It's ironic that some unjustified hate against him just for a long hair (a beautiful hair btw) made him bigger and a legend.

Hi! Think I found my safe Chicago place here 😂 thank y’all for receiving me ✨

This version has some chatter from Terry just before recording the song.

Chicago is my 2nd most listened to artist on Spotify since I first signed up in January 2012. I have listened to Chicago 3,431 times (234 hours).

Interestingly there's a tie for my most listened to Chicago songs.

"If You Leave Me Now" and "Now" -- I've listened to both 62 times. After that are "Beginnings", "No Tell Lover," and "Hard Habit to Break" t round out my Top 5. I have CTA, II, V, VII, XI, 16, and 17 on vinyl so I listen to those as well so Spotify wouldn't have a history of that.

They are 2nd only to Toto (4,583 times, 339.3 hours). And according to my AI's analysis-- In the 339.3 hours I've oddly only listened to Africa once and I've never listened to Rosanna on Spotify. Keep in mind I have Toto IV on vinyl, and used to have it on CD so I have listened to both tracks OFF of Spotify plenty of times.