Wishing You Were Here (1974) 6/26/20

In 1974, Peter Cetera had written a ballad for the album “Chicago VII, ” and was all prepped to sing lead on the track when he realized the instrumental portion of the verses had been recorded in a key too low for his voice.

No problem. Instead of re-recording the track, Peter just re-assigned the verses to fellow band-mate Terry Kath and kept the bridge and chorus vocals—which were in his range—for himself.

Next step: record the harmonies...and that's when a fortunate coincidence took place. It just so happened that the Beach Boys were visiting the studio on recording day, and Peter invited them to help out. Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine jumped right in...and the result was a “Great Song of the '70s!”

“Wishing You Were Here” was a bona fide hit in the the US & Canada. It went to #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart and #11 on the Hot 100. In Canada, it reached #5 and #12 on the matching charts.

Both Chicago and the Beach Boys were so pleased, they decided to tour together for the next several months, coining it the “Beachago” tour, with both groups on stage to sing the song as an encore. They toured together again in 1989, but by this time, Peter Cetera had left Chicago, Terry Kath had died of an accidental gunshot wound, and Dennis Wilson had drowned, so lead vocals on the song were covered by Mike Love and Carl Wilson.

“Wishing You Were Here:” A “Great Song of the '70s!”