Norman Brown
September 4, 2015
King of the Swamp: ZZ returns home; happy for experience
September 9, 2015
Trivia question: Who penned “If You Leave Me Now”? “Baby What a Big Surprise?” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry?” “Hard Habit to Break?” or “You’re the Inspiration?”
Chicago, you say. Close. Here’s another hit, he’s also the singer/bassist/songwriter behind the hits “If You Leave Me Now,” “After All” and “The Next Time I Fall.”
Peter Cetera has an enviable catalogue, indeed.
At age 71, the former Chicago frontman has long enjoyed his solo career, but it was only recently, after a several-year hiatus from the spotlight, that he returned to the stage. Luckily for Tri-parish residents, he’s slated to appear at the Cypress Bayou Casino on Sunday, Sept. 6.
“I took time off and didn’t think there was room for me anymore,” Cetera said. “But now I have this seven-piece electric group – a collection of Nashville friends – and we’re having so much fun.”
Chicago-born Cetera did get his start professionally in the late ’60s with The Chicago Transit Authority, which would eventually become Chicago. The band zipped up the charts with “25 or 6 to 4” with Cetera singing leads.
Suddenly the band was on the climb, but no one knew how to categorize their sound. It was ultimately tagged rock jazz. “I don’t know squat from jazz,” Cetera says.
“We were unique at the time we started,” the tenor recalls, “and it took us a while to get going.”
By 1985, things in the band had soured. He left the group, but stayed with the same label. And that made it tough for Cetera to make a name for himself.
“[The label] wanted me to go back,” he said. “It was beyond repair by then. They wanted me gone and so did I. It hasn’t been easy because I was always being pegged into the Chicago thing.”
That’s not to say Cetera’s solo move didn’t bring success. His first solo single, “Glory of Love,” the theme to “The Karate Kid, Part II” was a No. 1 Billboard hit in 1986. It was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
Cetera teamed with Amy Grant on “The Next Time I Fall” next. “Feels Like Heaven,” a hit with Chaka Khan, and “After All” with Cher would follow. The songs, although quite popular, also fueled Cetera’s reputation as a balladeer.
“I’ve always sort of been pegged that way,” he says. “In reality, my music has maybe one or two [ballads] on each album. My label promotes the ballads, but I have rock, too.”
And Cetera is proving it on during his current tour of the country.
“Basically my show today is the songs that I’ve written, recorded and produced,” he says. That includes the pre-solo stuff.
“I’m very happy with the run I have had,” he says. “There are some good songs I’m very proud of.”
The audiences these days, much like his catalogue, are quite varied, too.
“I’m finding that there is a lot of mix in the audience,” he says. “Even the older people that know the old stuff sometimes are surprised to hear the songs I’ve had a hand in. My audiences are a blend of people that know me from before and people who know me now.
“Some may know my name; some may know my face,” he continues. “But when I hit the stage and start playing the music, they’re still surprised. That’s fun to see; that’s what brought me back.”
Cetera says rarely does he play a show that someone in the audience doesn’t approach him to say they fell in love or were married to one of his songs.
“It is amazing to see how many of my songs meant so much to so many people,” he says. “These songs were the soundtrack to their lives. Sure, they’re a little shocked to see I am coming onstage without a rocker, but it never fails that somewhere, we’ll hit one of the songs that affected their lives.”
Cetera says as long as people keep showing up, he’ll keep touring. “I still enjoy it, playing these songs. I’m proud of ’em. As long as I love doing the songs and can get around, why not? I’m looking forward to seeing everybody in that neck of the country.”
Former Chicago front man Peter Cetera will perform at the Cypress Bayou Casino on Sunday, Sept. 6.
Cetera said rarely does he play a show that someone in the audience tells him they fell in love or were married to one of his songs. He takes the stage Sept. 6 at Cypress Bayou Casino in Charenton.
