If You Leave Me Now

Chicago's bass player Peter Cetera wrote this and sang lead. Cetera specialized in ballads, adding variety to the band's sound, which featured many more rock-oriented songs, often written by Terry Kath or Robert Lamm. Cetera's ballads quickly became the band's biggest hits, with "If You Leave Me Now" their most successful song to that point, topping the charts in the US and UK. Of course, their record company wanted more of where that came from and kept pushing the Cetera songs - the big hit from their next album was his tune "Baby What a Big Surprise." The group found a new audience and became much more successful, but they also got earmarked as a soft rock group, which took the focus away from their grittier, horn-heavy songs. This became a point of contention for Chicago's famed section, especially trombone player James Pankow, who recalls constant battles to get the horns higher in the mix from that point forward. When Cetera left Chicago in 1985, his hits didn't stop: In 1986, "Glory Of Love" went to #1 US and his duet with Amy Grant, "The Next Time I Fall," made it to #4.

Lyrically, this is a surprisingly simple song, but it does have an unusual structure. Depending on how you look at it, there's either no chorus, or it's all chorus. The song opens with the title line, which is also the hook: If you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me The next line gives Peter Cetera a chance to show off his vocal range, and makes it clear that he is full-on pleading: Ooooh no, baby please don't go The title then returns, but with another consequence: If you leave me now, you'll take away the very heart of me The rest of the song is Cetera making his case for why the girl shouldn't leave, in very histrionic fashion. He wrote the words around the melody, which he composed first. Cetera is very good at composing songs that push emotional extremes, and these songs are well suited to his voice, which can reach the notes to accentuate these feelings.

Considering their longevity and success, it's surprising how Chicago has been spurned by both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Grammys. The band's only Grammy award came for this song, when it won for Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo, Group or Chorus. The song also won the award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), which went to James William Guercio and Jimmie Haskell.