BILLBOARD #1 HITS: #407: “IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW”- CHICAGO – OCTOBER 23, 1976

· by · in 1970's, Album Covers, Albums, American Top 40, Entertainment, Music, Music Videos, Pop Music, Radio, Rock Music. ·

Billboard #1 Hits: #407: “If You Leave Me Now”- Chicago. October 23, 1976. #1 for 2 weeks in Billboard Hot 100.

  • Single:” If You Leave Me Now”- Chicago
  • Record Company- Columbia
  • Genre: Pop Rock
  • Written by Peter Cetera
  • Time: 3:59
  • B Side: “Together Again”
  • Album- Chicago X
  • Grade: A
  • Peaked at #1 2 weeks in Billboard Hot 100. #1 in UK Singles Chart, #1 in Australia, #1 in Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and South Africa.

I am not a big fan of the ballads of Peter Cetera in the 80’s with Chicago or his solo career- but this one really works for me- because of musical arrangement- which by the way won Chicago their first Grammy. This was one of only 5 #1 hits in a 9 month period in 1976 that wasn’t a disco song. It was also Chicago’s biggest international hit.

7 responses to “BILLBOARD #1 HITS: #407: “IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW”- CHICAGO – OCTOBER 23, 1976”

  1. I saw Chicago Transit Authority live at Texas International POP Festival in August of 1969. They were by far the best live band there. A few years later, again, but at Moody Colosseum on the SMU campus. Still, the best live band I have ever heard. Still a great group. These shows were before Terry Cathe died.

  3. Wow, Hans, I didn’t see that “A” coming from you. I know you can have very strong opinions and are not shy to express them with your grades! 🙂

    BTW, I like that tune as well. The problem I had with Chicago wasn’t so much that they did ballads like “If You Leave Me Now” or “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.” It’s the huge amount of such ballads they did, especially in the ’80s, and the large abandonment of their horn-driven ’70s sound. Plus, their ’80s ballads kind of all sound the same, and Peter Cetera just became too much!

    • It just became too much Peter Cetera. I guess it would have been fine, had they included one or two ballads on each album but otherwise kept their cool horn-driven sound from the ’70s. Instead, the keyboards became dominant and the horns became an afterthought.

Comments are closed.