The band went to Miami's Criteria Studios with producer Phil Ramone, who had mixed many of their singles and television specials. "Hot Streets was a scary experience," says Pankow of the album even band members occasionally slip and called Chicago XII. "Guercio was no longer in the picture, and neither was Terry. But Phil Ramone believed in the band from the beginning. After recovering from the enormous tragedy of losing Terry, I think we did a damn good job."

Perhaps the album's most notable song is the up tempo "Alive Again," which was also the first single. "If you read between the lines, it's a tribute to Terry Kath's passing," says Pankow. "That's the first song we recorded subsequent to Terry's death. It's the band saying we're alive again, and Terry's looking down on us with a big smile."

To mark the new era, Chicago changed their album design. Hot Streets, released in September 1978, was the first Chicago album on which a picture of the group was the dominant feature of the cover. "After the album came out, the record company did a survey," says Pankow, "and 90 percent of the people surveyed didn't give a shit about what we looked like, much to our chagrin. They wanted to see the logo. The music has always spoken for itself, and the logo has as well. It's like Coca-Cola: When you see it, you know what it is," Hot Streets was certified platinum before the end of October, and produced two top 20 Singles in "Alive Again" and "No Tell Lover." "It got us over the letup," Parazaider says, "and we proved to ourselves we could go on and sell records."

The band went on the road to support the album and did a concert tour with a small orchestra conducted by Bill Conti, who had risen to fame as the Oscar-winning composer of the soundtrack to Sly Stallone's Rocky. Ultimately, Donnie Dacus didn't work out and left the band, though he remained through the 13th album. The personnel problem was compounded by a musical one: As the late '70s wore on, the sophisticated, jazz-rock, pop-oriented style of Chicago was being squeezed by disco on one side and punk/new wave on the other, each of them making the band seem unfashionable.

Responding to pressure to change the sound, Chicago 13 , which was released in August 1979, contained the song "Street Player," which has a disco flavor. According to Parazaider, the album "hit the wall at 700,000 copies, a good sale for some, but very disappointing by Chicago's standards.

At this time, Chicago signed a new, multi-million dollar record contract with Columbia. "There was no way either party should have made that deal," says Lamm. "It created a lot of animosity at the company." After Chicago XIV suffered disappointing sales, Columbia bought the group out of the remainder of the contract and released Greatest Hits, Volume II, counted as the 15th album.

To replace Donnie Dacus, Chicago had hired guitarist Chris Pinnick as a sideman. "Chris came closest to Terry's rhythmic approach," says Lamm.  Laudir De Oliveira also departed the group at this point.