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Peter Cetera music biography continued...

His initial foray into music was the accordion, but he soon made his way to electric bass (and, occasionally, guitar), eventually joining a band called The Big Thing, which would morph into the Chicago Transit Authority and later simply Chicago. By the early 1970s, Chicago was one of the most popular pop/rock groups in America and had a series of jazz inspired rock tunes that featured Cetera on vocals, including such hits as "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "Saturday in the Park." In 1976, Cetera tried his hand at songwriting with the tender ballad "If You Leave Me Now." It immediately shot to #1 and became a turning point in Chicago' history, as they subsequently adopted a more soft-rock style leading to such gigantic Cetera-penned smashes as "You're the Inspiration," "Hard Habit to Break" and "Hard to Say I'm Sorry."
With all of Chicago's success, a conflict soon arose as to which direction the band was taking due to Cetera's increasing focus on slow ballads. That, plus the pressure of launching a solo career while supporting the band's concert schedule, caused Cetera to leave the band in 1985. Upon quitting the band, however, he soon returned to the top of the charts with such signature Peter Cetera songs as "The Glory of Love," the first single from his album Solitude/Solitaire, as well as the theme to the film The Karate Kid Part II, and "The Next Time I Fall," a duet with Amy Grant. A year later he produced Agnetha Faltskog's I Stand Alone, and upon reemerging in 1988 with One More Story, Cetera scored with another duet, "After All," this one recorded with Cher. After a four-year hiatus, Cetera came back in 2001 with the album Another Perfect World. Since then, he has continued to record and perform, in 2006 embarking on a nationwide jaunt backed by a symphony orchestra to promote his first live album, Soundstage. As a singer, songwriter and bassist Peter Cetera has enjoyed a remarkable career with Chicago and as a soloist with two Grammy Award nominations, an Academy Award nomination and four hit singles landing at #1. He has, indeed, laid claim to the title of rock royalty.