The group was originally called The Big Thing; they spent much of the Summer of Love (1967) playing cover songs in the upper Midwest, but started playing their own songs a year later after connecting with producer James Guercio, who became their manager. Since they were from the Chicago area, they changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which they later truncated to Chicago for the sake of simplicity, not because of any legal action.
Four of their original members - James Pankow, Walter Parazaider, Lee Loughnane and Robert Lamm - have been with the band since their formation, each logging over 50 years with the group.
Early on, the band had a political bent, which is apparent on their 1971 4-record release Chicago At Carnegie Hall, where they make several references to the evils of the "military industrial complex," air pollution, and America's most famous crook, Richard Nixon.
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