By Nicole Bernard
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Peter Paul Cetera (/səˈtɛrə/ sə-TERR-ə; born September 13, 1944) is a retired American musician best known for being a frontman, vocalist, and bassist for the American rock band Chicago from 1967 until his departure in 1985. His career as a recording artist encompasses 17 studio albums with Chicago and eight solo studio albums.
As a solo artist, Cetera has scored six Top 40 singles, including two that reached number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1986, “Glory of Love” and “The Next Time I Fall“. “Glory of Love”, the theme song from the film The Karate Kid Part II (1986), was co-written by Cetera, David Foster, and Diane Nini and was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for best original song from a motion picture. In 1987, Cetera received an ASCAP award for “Glory of Love” in the category “Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures”. His performance on “Glory of Love” was nominated for a Grammy Award for best pop male vocal. That same year Cetera and Amy Grant, who performed as a duet on “The Next Time I Fall”, were nominated for a Grammy Award for best vocal performance by a pop duo or group. Besides Foster and Grant, Cetera has collaborated throughout his career with other recording artists from various genres of music. His songs have been featured in soundtracks for movies and television.
With “If You Leave Me Now“, a song written and sung by Cetera on the group’s tenth album, Chicago received its first Grammy Award. It was also the group’s first number one single. In 2014, Chicago’s first album, Chicago Transit Authority (Columbia, 1969), featuring Cetera on bass and vocals, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Cetera was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Chicago in April 2016, and he, Robert Lamm, and James Pankow were among the 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees for their songwriting efforts as members of the group. Cetera, along with other members of Chicago, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
Cetera’s early musical influences include Bo Diddley, Ritchie Valens, Little Richard, Jimmy Reed, and the Ventures. After he embarked on his music career, the Beatles became a prominent influence in his early twenties.
In December 1967, Cetera arrived early for a show to watch a band called the Big Thing. Impressed by their use of a horn section combined with rock and roll, Cetera left the Exceptions to join the Big Thing within two weeks. The Big Thing, which soon changed its name to the Chicago Transit Authority (and eventually shortened it to Chicago), released its self-titled debut album Chicago Transit Authority on Columbia Records in 1969. Cetera shared lead vocals on three of the eleven songs on the album: “Questions 67 & 68”, “I’m a Man”, and “Someday”, his tenor voice complementing the baritone voices of the two other lead singers in the group, keyboardist Robert Lamm and guitarist Terry Kath.
The follow-up album, Chicago, vaulted the band to popular status throughout the world. The song “25 or 6 to 4” was the first major hit single with Cetera singing lead vocals. Chicago is also notable for featuring Cetera’s first songwriting effort with the group, “Where Do We Go From Here?“
TODAY’S ALMANAC
There is no year without one Friday the 13th, and no year with more than three. This day is considered the unluckiest of days in many superstitions, unless you were born on Friday the 13th, in which case it is your lucky day. “Friggatriskaidekaphobia” is the fear of Friday the 13th. Some people don’t like the number 13, whether it’s a Friday or not. The fear of the number 13 is called “triskaidekaphobia.” Quite a few skyscrapers and hotels do not have a 13th floor (or a room 13, for that matter), and many buildings substitute 12 1/2 for 13 in their addresses. Winston Churchill wouldn’t travel on Friday the 13th, considering it too unlucky.” Discover more fun and freaky facts about Friday the 13th!
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Emblem of majesty am I, which “shows force of temporal power,” but twist me about and I become a thing which makes even monarchs cower. (What word fits the first clue, but when rearranged, fits the second?)
Scepter – specter
Born
- Oliver Evans (inventor) –
- Clara Schumann (pianist & composer) –
- Milton Hershey (founder of Hershey Chocolate Company) –
- Adolf Meyer (psychiatrist) –
- Sherwood Anderson (writer) –
- Leland Hayward (producer) –
- Claudette Colbert (actress) –
- Horace Babcock (astronomer) –
- Roald Dahl (author) –
- Else Holmelund Minarik (children’s author; Little Bear” series”) –
- Mel Torme (singer) –
- Jacqueline Bisset (actress) –
- Peter Cetera (musician) –
- Nell Carter (actress & singer) –
- Anne Geddes (photographer) –
- Michael Johnson (Olympic athlete) –
- Tyler Perry (actor and screenwriter) –
- Stella McCartney (fashion designer) –
- Fiona Apple (singer) –
- Ben Savage (actor) –
Died
- John Barry (commodore, father of the American navy) –
- Richard Merrell (television writer & actor) –
- George Wallace (politician) –
- Dorothy McGuire (actress) –
- Dilhan Eryurt (Turkish astrophysicist) –
- Frank Vincent (actor) –
- Eddie Money (singer) –
Events
- Halford Mackinder’s team became the first Europeans to summit Mount Kenya–
- Henry Bliss walked off a trolley and was hit by a speeding driver. The following day when he died from his injuries, he became the first pedestrian to be killed by an automobile–
- The Chocolate Soldier opened in N.Y.C.–
- Chiang Kai-shek became president of China–
- Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress–
- IBM introduced the first computer with a disk storage system–
- A protester dressed as Batman scaled the front wall of Buckingham Palace–
Weather
- Frost hit Albany, New York, ending the shortest growing season ever–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
