Chicago — the soft-rock gods who ruled the ’70s airwaves — almost left one in every of their definitive hits behind.
The yr was 1976, the band was working on “Chicago X,” and then-lead singer and bassist Peter Cetera had this one track — “If You Leave Me Now” — he really believed in, even when everybody else needed convincing.
“[He] had a tough time getting that song on the album,” founding Chicago member Robert Lamm, 78, told The Post in regards to the Cetera-penned tune that took the troupe of musicians in a radically different direction.
“We were rocking and jazzing, after which that song was the softest, most beautiful ballad that you may consider. It went No. 1 around the globe, and we never could recover from that [sound],” Lamm said.
“If You Leave Me Now” — the airy godmother of such signature Chicago ballads as “Baby, What a Big Surprise,” “You’re the Inspiration” and their second No. 1 single, 1982’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” — will little question be on the set list when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band plays an intimate profit for Musicians on Call on the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square on Sunday.
The charity — which dispatches live musicians to hospitals and other healthcare facilities — provides a sonic tonic for sick patients.
“The doctors and nurses noticed that the healing power of music helped everyone, irrespective of what sort of shape they were in,” Lee Loughnane, 76, who plays trumpet within the famous Chicago horn section, told The Post.
Loughnane, Lamm — on keyboards and vocals — and trombonist James Pankow are the three original members still with the now-10-man band, 56 years after it was formed in Chicago.
For them, it has indeed been a tough habit to interrupt, despite a revolving door of musicians through the years.
“We show up every night — we all know where all of the bodies are buried,” said Loughnane with fun.
There’s a flicker of hope that Cetera — a founding member who left the group to pursue a solo profession in 1985 — might return home to Chicago sooner or later.
“You already know, you never know,” Lamm said. “He lives sort of a non-public life. He recently retired for some time, but he could also be coming out of retirement. It’s been an extended time since we’ve had an extended talk. I might like to, but to date it hasn’t happened.”
Still, Lamm said, anything’s possible.
“You may bump into someone within the airport.”
Within the meantime, they’ll be maintaining their busy touring schedule this summer — making local stops at Long Island’s NYCB Theatre at Westbury on June 23 and Catholic Health Amphitheater at Bald Hill in Farmingville on June 24, plus the State Theatre Recent Jersey in Recent Brunswick on June 25.
And, there’s way more napping than partying on the road today.
“In fact, for the primary couple of many years, we were partying very hard and, you recognize, we had a great time,” said Lemm. “However it was time to place that away.”
And so they’re still not bored with playing timeless tunes equivalent to the jazz-rock jam “25 or 6 to 4” or Loughnane’s fave “Beginnings,” from their 1969 debut album “Chicago Transit Authority” — which was the group’s original name before they shortened it to only Chicago.
“The songs have had an effect on different generations, and there was no way of knowing that until you get this far in life,” said Loughnane.
But Lamm’s heart belongs to a certain Chicago classic that he wrote.
“‘Saturday within the Park’ is a song meaning lots to me,” he says. “I grew up in Brooklyn, and at any time when I could be in the town, I walked through [Central Park], and it brings back what it was like being a child after which realizing that music was going to be a part of my life.”
And having rocked from the ’70s into their 70s, they don’t care if being labeled ‘soft rock’ gives them a foul rap.
“To start with, they said we were more ‘experimental,’” said Loughnane. “But you’ll be able to call it whatever you wish.”
