Which Chicago albums or singles charted highest after Cetera's departure and why?
Executive summary
After Peter Cetera left Chicago in 1985, the band continued to score high-charting singles and albums, notably Chicago 17 — Cetera’s last album with the group — which produced multiple Top 20 hits and went six-times platinum [1]. The first album released after his exit, Chicago 18 , and later packages such as Greatest Hits 1982–1989 sold well and kept singles on the charts, helped by the band’s embrace of David Foster–era pop balladry and MTV-era videos [2] [1].
1. The immediate post‑Cetera landscape: Chicago 17’s tailwind and Chicago 18’s arrival
Chicago 17, released in May 1984 and featuring Cetera on lead vocals, generated four Top 20 Hot 100 singles and massive sales that culminated in a six-times platinum certification; its video rotation on MTV helped power that success [1]. Cetera’s departure in 1985 left Chicago with momentum built on polished power‑ballad production; the band followed with Chicago 18 in 1986, their first record with Jason Scheff on bass and vocals, which was presented as the successor to the very commercially successful Foster‑produced era [2].
2. Which singles and albums charted highest after Cetera left
Available sources identify Chicago 18 as the first studio album after Cetera’s exit and note that the band’s later compilations — for example, Greatest Hits 1982–1989 — became some of the group’s biggest sellers, with that hits set spanning the Foster/Cetera and Foster/Scheff years and eventually going multi‑platinum [2]. Specific single‑by‑single Billboard peak numbers for post‑1985 Chicago singles are not provided in the current reporting; the sources do confirm that the band continued to place singles in the Top 20 and Top 3 during the mid‑1980s era centered on Chicago 17 and its singles [1] [3].
3. Why the band still charted high without Cetera: production, songs, and video
The band’s commercial staying power after Cetera came from a few converging forces identified in sources: a stylistic shift to radio‑friendly, Polished adult‑contemporary ballads under producers like David Foster; strong songwriting contributions (some still from Cetera before his exit); and successful music videos that kept singles on the charts in the MTV era [4] [1] [5]. Chicago 17’s three successful videos — “Stay the Night,” “You’re the Inspiration,” and “Hard Habit to Break” — propelled album sales and created an audience Chicago could carry forward after the lineup change [1].
4. The role of personnel and image: replacing Cetera with a “sonic lookalike”
When Cetera left the band they recruited Jason Scheff, whose vocal approach and David Foster’s production choices emphasized continuity; Scheff later recalled being instructed to sing “just like Cetera,” which underscores an explicit commercial strategy to preserve chart viability by maintaining a familiar vocal timbre [2]. Critics and retrospectives point to this deliberate continuity — and to Foster’s studio sheen — as key reasons Chicago remained a chart concern despite losing their long‑time frontman [5] [2].
5. Compilations, catalog strength and touring: secondary drivers of chart success
Chicago’s back catalog and greatest‑hits collections continued to perform strongly, with older material still driving album sales and keeping the group visible on charts and in the marketplace; Chicago IX and later compilations had already demonstrated the band’s catalog power prior to Cetera’s exit [6]. The band’s relentless touring and ongoing new recordings also kept them commercially relevant after Cetera left [7] [4].
6. What the available reporting does not say (important caveats)
Current sources do not provide a complete, sourced list of exact Billboard peak positions for every Chicago single released after 1985; they also do not enumerate which specific non‑Cetera singles reached the very highest positions on the Hot 100 after his departure. For granular chart placement or week‑by‑week chart data, the available reporting is silent and would require direct Billboard chart citations not included in these sources (not found in current reporting).
7. Bottom line — charts, commerce, and continuity
Chicago’s highest‑charting post‑Cetera commercial achievements were anchored not by a single miraculous rebirth but by continuity: the commercial model forged in the David Foster era, a successor vocalist positioned to fill Cetera’s role, heavy MTV and radio support for singles from Chicago 17 and its immediate successors, and continued exploitation of the band’s deep catalog via hits compilations [1] [2] [4]. Different sources emphasize production and image as the central reasons — an explicit business choice that prioritized chart potential over radical reinvention [5] [2].