Peter Cetera

When you think of Chicago, the band with the horns, you also think of a handful of immense ballads: "If You Leave Me Now", "Hard to Say I'm Sorry". And those ballads have one voice, a single unmistakable one: a high tenor, sweet and soft, able to hold a note with a tenderness that melted you. That voice belonged to Peter Cetera, Chicago's bassist and singer. For almost twenty years he was responsible for the tenderest moments of one of the biggest bands in the United States. And one day, at the very top, he did the riskiest thing he could do: he went solo. The story of why he left, and of what happened next, is a lesson in betting on yourself.

The tender voice of a powerful band

Chicago was many things — rock with brass, energy, muscle — but when they wanted to break hearts, they sent Peter Cetera out front. His voice was the perfect counterweight to the band's power: where the horns punched, he caressed. "If You Leave Me Now", from 1976, was Chicago's first number one and won a Grammy, and it is basically Cetera and his voice floating over a melody that has not aged a day. "Hard to Say I'm Sorry", years later, repeated the formula and the success.

Being the ballad voice of such a big band is a privileged place and a limiting one at the same time: you were essential, but you were one part of an enormous collective, with rules, with other egos, with a machine already running. And Cetera began to feel that he had things of his own to say, songs of his own to make, that did not fit inside that machine.

The leap into the void

In 1985 he made the decision: he left Chicago. And the risk has to be measured properly. Walking away from one of the most successful bands in the country, at full throttle, to try your luck alone, is an enormous gamble. Music history is full of singers who left great bands convinced that people would follow them, and vanished. The audience could well have decided that it loved Chicago, not him. Nobody could guarantee otherwise.

Cetera bet that the voice was his, not the band's, and that people would follow him. And he won, fast and big. In 1986, barely after leaving, he released "Glory of Love", the theme from the film "The Karate Kid Part II", and it went straight to number one, with an Oscar nomination into the bargain. Almost immediately after, "The Next Time I Fall", a duet with Amy Grant, also hit number one. In a couple of years he proved beyond any doubt that the voice millions had fallen for was entirely his own, and that it could shine without the band that had made him famous. The riskiest bet of his career came off perfectly.

Knowing when to fall silent

And there is one last gesture that does him credit. Peter Cetera retired from the stage by his own choice, and gave a beautiful reason: he wanted to stop singing before he lost his voice. He did not wait for age to ruin the instrument, for concerts where he could no longer reach the notes, for becoming a shadow of what he had been. He preferred to leave while that voice was still that voice, and to stay in people's memory at his very best.

That is a rare wisdom in show business, where so many cling on until the end. Cetera understood that his voice was a treasure, and that taking care of it included knowing when to stop demanding things of it. He left the party at exactly the right moment, just as he had known how to leave Chicago: choosing for himself, rather than letting circumstances choose for him.

What to remember

Peter Cetera was the tender voice behind Chicago's great ballads, "If You Leave Me Now" and "Hard to Say I'm Sorry". In 1985 he made the riskiest bet possible, leaving a giant band to go solo, and won immediately with "Glory of Love" and "The Next Time I Fall", proving that the voice was his. And he retired by his own decision, to stop singing before the voice stopped for him.

Remember him this way: he had the courage to bet on himself when everything advised staying put, and the wisdom to retire while he was still at the top. Starting well is luck; leaving well is character. Peter Cetera did both, with the same voice that never failed him.

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Sources

Peter Cetera, American singer, bassist and songwriter born on 13 September 1944 in Chicago, Illinois; living, retired from performing. He was the bassist and one of the lead vocalists of the band Chicago between 1967 and 1985, and sang lead on "If You Leave Me Now" (1976), the band's first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and a Grammy winner, and on "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (1982), also a number one. He left Chicago in July 1985 after failing to reconcile his interest in a solo career with his reluctance to undertake extensive touring. In his solo career he reached number one with "Glory of Love" (1986, theme from the film "The Karate Kid Part II", nominated for an Oscar) and with "The Next Time I Fall" (1986, a duet with Amy Grant); "After All", a duet with Cher (1989), reached number six. He said he was retiring in order to stop singing before losing his voice; his last live performance was on 23 November 2018. Chicago has its own profile in this series. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia and other coverage.