Chicago Transit Authority (CTA : Chicago)
By the late 1960s, Seraphine was drumming in various bands, including one with teen friends Walter Parazaider (saxophone and woodwinds) and Terry Kath (guitar). After the addition of Lee Loughnane (trumpet), James Pankow (trombone), Robert Lamm (keyboards) and Peter Cetera (bass), the band performed under a number of different names, first the Missing Links, then The Big Thing (sometime The Big Sound), before settling on Chicago Transit Authority, which was soon shortened to Chicago because of threatened legal action funny enough by the actual Chicago Transit Authority.
Their producer and manager, James William Guercio, moved Chicago out to Los Angeles and they became the house band at the Whisky A Go Go. They subsequently obtained a contract with Columbia Records and recorded their first album - a double album - in just two weeks. The album was titled after the band's name, The Chicago Transit Authority, and released in 1969. Second only to The Beach Boys in terms of Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest running and most successful pop/rock and roll groups.
Seraphine co-wrote several songs for the band: "Lowdown" (a Top 40 hit for the band), "Little One," "Take Me Back to Chicago," "Show Me the Way," "Birthday Boy" and "Street Player." His writing partner was often David "Hawk" Wolinski, the keyboardist for Chaka Khan and Rufus. His song "Street Player" was sampled by rapper Pitbull for the hit "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" from the album "Rebelution". The song samples "75, Brazil Street" by Nicola Fasano versus Pat Rich, which itself samples "Street Player". "I Know You Want Me" has also been featured in Dance Central, the Xbox Kinect-Based dancing game, Dance Dance Revolution X2 for PlayStation 2, and SingStar Dance, the PlayStation Move-based dancing game.
Seraphine was let go from Chicago in 1990.
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