| Peter Cetera | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Peter Paul Cetera |
| Born | September 13, 1944 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Rock, adult contemporary, soft rock, jazz fusion |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, bass guitar, guitar, accordion |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Labels | Warner Bros. Records River North Records |
| Associated acts | Chicago, David Foster |
| Website | http://www.petercetera.com |
| Notable instruments:
Fender Precision Bass |
|
Peter Paul Cetera is an American singer, songwriter, and bassist best known for being an original member of the rock band Chicago (1967–1985), before launching a successful solo career. His career as a recording artist encompasses seventeen albums with Chicago and eight solo albums.
With “If You Leave Me Now,” a song written and sung by Cetera on the group’s tenth album, Chicago garnered its first Grammy Award It was also the group’s first number one single.
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, 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 he 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 duetted on “The Next Time I Fall,” were nominated for a Grammy Award for best vocal performance by a pop duo or group.
Besides David Foster and Amy Grant, Cetera has collaborated throughout his career with other nationally known and internationally known recording artists from various genres of music including: The Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Karen Carpenter, Paul Anka, Agnetha Fältskog, Richard Sterban, Bonnie Raitt, Madonna, David Gilmour, Az Yet, Cher, Chaka Khan, Crystal Bernard, Ronna Reeves, and Alison Krauss. His songs have been featured in soundtracks for movies and television.
Cetera’s interest in music began at 11 years of age when his parents bought him an accordion instead of the guitar he wanted. When he was 15, some older students from his high school took him to a club to see a band called The Rebel Rockers, which led to his purchasing an acoustic guitar at Montgomery Ward.
He eventually took up the electric bass, and with some high school friends—a drummer, guitarist and saxophone player—Cetera began playing the local dance circuit, dividing lead vocals with the guitarist. Cetera played in several groups in the Chicago area, including a popular local rock band named The Exceptions, which toured the Midwest in the mid-1960s. They released several singles and a five-song seven-inch EP titled Rock ‘N’ Roll Mass.Cetera is quoted as saying, “By the time I was 18 I was making more money than my dad.”
Cetera’s first bass guitar was a Danelectro Shorthorn and he switched to a Höfner 500/1 to use with The Exceptions, but after determining that the sound was not “bassy or ballsy” enough for Chicago, he bought a 1963 Fender Precision Bass to play and being his favorite bass, it would be his usual choice of instrument throughout his 17-year tenure with the band, hence he kept returning to it.
Other basses that Cetera has played include the Fender Jazz Bass (both in fretted and fretless versions), Gibson EB-3, Gibson Ripper, Rickenbacker 4001, Steinberger, Ibanez, Music Man StingRay and Spector models while his amplification varied between Ampeg, Orange, Kustom, Acoustic Control Corporation, Phase Linear and Sound City.[16]
He cites James Jamerson, Paul McCartney and Andy Fraser among his bass influences and says that he was aware of John Entwistle and Jack Bruce. While the bass guitar has been less prominent in his solo career, it has begun to re-emerge in more recent years and he has started to play the instrument again.
He currently endorses Wilkins basses, Taurus amplification and initially using LaBella flatwound bass strings, he switched to the roundwound bass strings made by LaBella, but didn’t quite like them as much as the flatwounds. He now uses the flatwounds again and Fender medium picks.
Cetera was featured in the cover story of the December 2007 issue of Bass Player magazine. Shortly thereafter, he saw the former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee playing bass guitar on television. Cetera sent his compliments, along with an autographed copy of the issue, to Huckabee, who was at that time a presidential hopeful in the 2008 Republican primaries. Huckabee said, “ ‘I was totally awestruck to get a letter from Peter Cetera. …having one of the greatest bass players in my generation give me a compliment is like winning New Hampshire.'”
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