I’m not sure what happened to Chicago in the first half of the Seventies. They got slower, and more middle-of-the-road and, as they lost sight of their roots, increasingly popular.
The group that had formed as a brassy blues-rock band and had the electrifying hit 25 Or 6 To 4 returned after a five-year gap in 1976 with this soporific ballad, If You Leave Me Now.

In many ways it’s exactly the sort of song that turned my ears to punk when it topped the singles chart that year.

Slow ballads seemed to be getting exponentially slower and slushier and this, in many ways, was the apotheosis of that.
Peter Cetera’s blond bouffant and dubious waistcoat – as overdecorated as the song itself – were added irritations. It’s the sort of insidious thing that worms its way into your head and stays lodged there for ever.

Just the sound of that gentle brass melody sets it off in mine, though I do rather like the 12-string acoustic guitar bit.
To my huge surprise, I now learn that Chicago are officially the second-most successful American band of all time (behind The Beach Boys) in terms of singles and albums.

Which is odd when most of us only know one or two songs at best, and can only name one band member (if any), and wouldn’t recognise any of them if they walked into the room.

That’s the way they’ve always liked it, right down to the numerically-titled albums with the band logo on each sleeve, keeping the personalities in the background

They formed in the late Sixties as The Big Thing before becoming Chicago Transit Authority until the real transport organisation objected – were they worried commuters might accidentally buy an album instead of a ticket for the L train?

Remarkably, they are still going, and their albums, all titled in Roman numerals, have reached XXXVII.