1984 Chicago – Chicago 17

Chicago 17 is the fourteenth studio album by American band Chicago, released on May 14, 1984. It was the group’s second release for Full Moon/Warner Bros. Records, their second album to be produced by David Foster and their last with founding bassist/vocalist Peter Cetera.

Four singles were released from the album, all of which placed in the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The success of the singles propelled Chicago 17 to achieve an RIAA certification of six times platinum. Chicago 17 remains the biggest-selling album in the band’s history.

In 1985, the album received three Grammy Awards. David Foster won for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical (tied in this category with Lionel Richie and James Anthony Carmichael), Humberto Gatica won for Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and David Foster and Jeremy Lubbock won for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for “Hard Habit to Break” which was also nominated for Record of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices. In his review of the album for AllMusic, music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine says Chicago 17 is “the pinnacle of [producer David Foster’s] craft and one of the best adult contemporary records of the ’80s,” and one of the most influential albums “within its style.”

In 2006, Rhino Entertainment remastered and reissued the album, using the original analog versions of “Please Hold On” (which was co-written with Lionel Richie who was enjoying success from his album Can’t Slow Down) and “Prima Donna” and adding a Robert Lamm demo, “Here Is Where We Begin” as a bonus track.