CHICAGO - YOU'RE THE INSPIRATION

YOU’RE THE INSPIRATION

CHICAGO

SONGWRITERS: PETER PAUL CETERA & DAVID WALTER FOSTER

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: CHICAGO 17

LABEL: FULL MOON

GENRE: SOFT ROCK

YEAR: 1984

 

       Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967. The group was initially billed as The Big Thing before calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority in 1968, and then shortening the name in 1969. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" blended elements of classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop music. They produced numerous top-40 hits over two decades, and continue to record and perform live.

           Growing out of several Chicago-area bands in the late 1960s, the line-up consisted of Peter Cetera on bass, Terry Kath on guitar, Robert Lamm on keyboards, Lee Loughnane on trumpet, James Pankow on trombone, Walter Parazaider on woodwinds, and Danny Seraphine on drums. Cetera, Kath, and Lamm shared lead vocal duties. Laudir de Oliveira joined the band as a percussionist and second drummer in 1974. Kath died in 1978, and was replaced by several guitarists in succession. Bill Champlin joined in 1981, providing vocals, keyboards, and rhythm guitar. Cetera left the band in 1985 and was replaced by Jason Scheff. Seraphine left in 1990, and was replaced by Tris Imboden. The band's lineup has been more fluid since 2000, but keyboardist Robert Lamm and the entire horn section of Loughnane, Pankow, and Parazaider have remained constant members.

     The band's first album, Chicago Transit Authority(1969), a sprawling double album filled with experimental rock songs, failed to produce a hit single. Their second album, another double album simply titled Chicago (1970) (later retroactively titled Chicago II) continued with the format of experimental rock, however the album produced two top-10 singles, "Make Me Smile", which peaked at 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "25 or 6 to 4", which peaked at 4. Re-releases of several singles from the first album also charted in the top 10 in 1970, and 1971. The band would continue to produce hit albums based on the formula established with their first two records until 1978, when Kath died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. The band changed sounds as the 1980s began, where Peter Cetera and producer David Foster took the band in a less progressive direction, producing a number of soft rock and easy listening hits, including "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (1982) from Chicago 16 and "You're the Inspiration" (1984) from Chicago 17, the band's biggest selling album in their career. Cetera left to pursue a solo career in 1985, but the band continued to produce hit singles under Foster's direction, including "Will You Still Love Me?" (1986), featuring lead vocals from new bassist Jason Scheff, and the band's best selling single of all time, "Look Away" (1988), with vocals by Bill Champlin. While the band failed to produce any hit songs from the 1990s onward, they continued to release albums and tour, including several highly successful co-headlining tours with fellow horn-based band Earth, Wind, and Fire. Their most recent album is Chicago XXXVII: Chicago Christmas from 2019.

         In September 2008, Billboard ranked Chicago at number thirteen in a list of the top 100 artists of all time for Hot 100 singles chart success, and ranked them at number fifteen on the same list produced in October 2015. Billboard also ranked Chicago ninth on the list of the 100 greatest artists of all time in terms of Billboard 200 album chart success in October 2015. Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world's best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records. In 1971, Chicago was the first rock act to sell out Carnegie Hall for a week.

       "You're the Inspiration" is a song written by Peter Cetera and David Foster for the group Chicago and recorded for their fourteenth studio album Chicago 17 (1984), with Cetera singing lead vocals. The third single released from that album, it reached Nº 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1985 and also climbed to the top position on the Adult Contemporary chart at the same time. The song won honors for Cetera from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers(ASCAP), in 1986 in the most-performed songs category.

          Peter Cetera re-recorded the song for his 1997 solo álbum You're the Inspiration: A Collection. That same year he also recorded a single version with the vocal R&B group, Az Yet.

You know our love was meant to be

The kind of love that lasts forever

And I want you here with me

From tonight until the end of time

You should know, everywhere I go

You're always on my mind, in my heart, in my soul

 

Baby, you're the meaning in my life

You're the inspiration

You bring feeling to my life

You're the inspiration

Wanna have you near me

I wanna have you hear me sayin

No one needs you more than I need you

 

And I know, yes I know that its plain to see

We're so in love when we're together

Now I know, that I need you here with me

From tonight until the end of time

You should know, everywhere I go

You're always on my mind, in my heart, in my soul

 

You're the meaning in my life

You're the inspiration

You bring feeling to my life

You're the inspiration

Wanna have you near me

I wanna have you hear me sayin

No one needs you more than I need you

 

Wanna have you near me

I wanna have you hear me sayin

No one needs you more than I need you

 

Baby, you're the meaning in my life

You're the inspiration

You bring feeling to my life

You're the inspiration

 

When you love somebody

Ill the end of time

When you love somebody

Always on my mind

(No one needs you more than I)

When you love somebody

Till the end of time

When you love somebody

Always on my mind.