After the commercial and critical disappointment of Chicago 13, and the departure of guitarist Donnie Dacus, Chicago decided that a new strategy was in order. Chris Pinnick played guitar on the sessions and would later become an official member. They also tried a new producer, this time Tom Dowd, who had worked with Aretha Franklin, Cream, Eric Clapton, and Toto. With Dowd taking the reins, and with Chicago abandoning the dance club sound that permeated their previous album, the band recorded a lean, more streamlined record which would, predictably, be called Chicago XIV. Possibly designed as a response to the under-produced, new wave efforts on the radio at the time, the album was the band's least orchestrated effort to date.
Artwork, packaging
Designed by Art Director of Columbia/CBS Records, John Berg, the album cover front features an album-cover size black thumbprint on a white background, with the Chicago logo embedded in the whorls. The album cover back also features an album-cover size black fingerprint or thumbprint on white background, but without the embedded Chicago logo. The inside dust cover is white with black printing that lists album credits, and also has at the edge four life-size black fingerprints from a right hand on the credits side of the liner, and a corresponding life-size black thumbprint at the edge of the back of the liner. This small thumbprint also has the Chicago logo embedded in the whorls. Berg was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album Package for this album. The cover was included in a 2012-2013 exhibit of Berg's album covers at Guild Hall of East Hampton. The cover artwork is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Release and aftermath
With four solo writing credits and one cowriting credit of the ten songs on the album, Peter Cetera took on a greater songwriting role in the band than in the past. His compositions included a mix of ballads, pop and rock songs. Robert Lamm turned in the rockers "Manipulation" and "I'd Rather Be Rich" ; James Pankow delivered the uptempo – if downbeat – "The American Dream"; and Lamm and Danny Seraphine co-wrote "Thunder and Lightning". Like Chicago 13 before it, Chicago XIV did not improve Chicago's fortunes. To the record-buying public, Chicago's image was out of touch in 1980 and once the new album was released, it became clear that any attempt to win new fans would be in vain. Columbia Records was increasingly disappointed with the poor sales performance of the band. Chicago XIV went unnoticed upon release and bombed, only reaching number seventy-one on the Billboard 200 chart in the US, and disappeared quickly. There were no singles hits again, with "Thunder and Lightning" stalling below the top fifty and "Song For You" failing to chart. Chicago also saw a poor attendance in many venues during the supporting tour. Realizing that the relationship had soured considerably, Columbia Records terminated their relationship with Chicago with a buyout of approximately $2 million. In 1982, Robert Lamm recalled, As a settlement to ending the arrangement early, Columbia released the band's second Greatest Hits album and jettisoned them from the label. The money from the settlement was used to record Chicago 16 independently, while the band shopped for a new label. Realizing that the Latin/Jazz percussion style evident in the latter half of the previous decade no longer fit with their "more pop-oriented sound," while beginning work on Chicago 16, the album Chicago XIV signaled the end of percussionist Laudir de Oliveira's tenure with the band after nine years. Peter Cetera, meanwhile, concentrated on his first self-titled solo album during the hiatus. In 2003, Chicago XIV was remastered and reissued by Rhino Records with three outtakes from the sessions, "Doin' Business", "Live It Up" and "Soldier of Fortune" as bonus tracks.
Track listing
Track titles, track order and writers for tracks one through ten from 1980 vinyl LP liner.
