The holiday season is bringing Chicago to New York – literally.
The veteran band stocked with six decades of hits will perform during Thursday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as it rolls through Manhattan, the fourth time the hitmakers have been asked to participate in the famed kickoff of the holiday season.
“That usually isn’t done,” said the band’s Lee Loughnane about Chicago’s multiple appearances over the years. “The fun part is being in the parade itself and seeing thousands of people lining the streets. They have to be freezing their butts off because we are while on the float!”
The Chicago lineup will be cozy on the Wonder bread Wondership float: founding members Loughnane and James Pankow – the core horn section – and singer/keyboardist Robert Lamm, along with Neil Donell (vocals), Eric Baines (bass), Ramon Yslas (percussion), Tony Obrohta (lead guitar), Ray Herrmann (saxophone, flute and clarinet), Loren Gold (keyboards) and Walfredo Reyes Jr. (drums).
A trio of Christmas songs from the band’s “Chicago Greatest Christmas Hits,” a recently released collection from their three holiday albums, will play continuously as the Wondership crawls down 6th Avenue before the band performs a 90-second version of its 1984 hit ballad, “You’re the Inspiration” at the parade conclusion at Macy’s Herald Square.
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Chicago’s collection of Christmas albums is also available as a three-CD set, “Chicago Christmas Complete,” as well as a single playlist on digital platforms.
Loughnane, 77, recalls recording the first holiday album, “Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album” in 1998 when band members brought in their offspring to sing in the choir on “Child’s Prayer” and “One Little Candle.”
“Those kids are all grown up now,” he says, wistfully.
That album also spawned what became Chicago’s bestselling Christmas hit, their cover of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” with Loughnane on lead vocals.
“We had each taken as many songs as we could to decide which we wanted to arrange and I brought in ‘Let It Snow!.' I had no intention of singing it and don’t remember how I got on there, but it worked out!” he says.
The song, unsurprisingly, is Loughnane’s favorite Christmas musical offering.
It took more than a decade before their follow-up yuletide, “Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Tree” landed with guest spots from Dolly Parton (“Wonderful Christmas Time”) and BeBe Winans (“Merry Christmas Darling”) in 2011.
Loughnane says Parton came to the studio not expecting to record, but once Chicago presented her with their brass-filled arrangement, “all of a sudden, she was on the mic, singing. She’s such a great singer, a one-take-and-you’re-done type. And BeBe, he’s been around the block and knows what he’s doing. He wasn’t familiar with the song but learned it while recording.”
While Chicago will bask in the holiday warmth for a couple of months, they’ll soon return to their familiar place on an amphitheater stage this summer with longtime touring co-headliners, Earth, Wind & Fire.
The 30-city Heart & Soul 2024 outing runs July 10-Sept. 7 (tickets are on sale now via ticketmaster.com).
It’s a union that the musicians value as much as the fans.
“Both bands are from Chicago and you have Black artists and white artists from the same city. It’s the perfect show for Super Bowl halftime, but so far no one has thought the same thing,” Loughnane jokes about a pairing that began in 2004.
As in past years, each band will play a headlining set before a joint encore that spotlights the distinct virtuosity of both musical icons (“September,” “Shining Star” and “25 or 6 to 4” have been go-to choices on recent tours.)
But to open their touring season, Chicago will first tuck into another special engagement – their seventh – at The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas for nine shows in February and March.
Loughnane appreciates the “not traveling” aspect of the mini-residency and the receptiveness of the audiences, which keep piling in.
“I’m not sure many bands get a second year, but we’ve been doing so well they keep inviting us back, so we must be doing something right,” he says.
As for the enduring legacy of Chicago, which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, Loughnane and his bandmates maintain a humble perspective.
“There was no way for us to have foreseen where we would be today,” he says. “It’s very difficult to find people who enjoy doing what we do at the same level that we do. We’re relentless. We try to make it sound like it’s the first time.”
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