Chicago XI, released in 1977, is the ninth studio album (eleventh overall) by the American band Chicago and marked the end of an era for the band. This would be the last Chicago studio album to feature guitarist Terry Kath prior to his death in a gun accident just over four months later, and the last Chicago LP to be produced by James William Guercio. Background According to the web site Ultimate Classic Rock, Chicago XI seems like a collection of solo songs rather than the work of the ensemble whole Chicago had been earlier in the 1970s. Peter Cetera aimed to replicate the success of the Grammy-winning "If You Leave Me Now" with "Baby, What a Big Surprise", which proved to be the album's biggest hit, going to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was his only writing contribution to the album and, quite atypically, the only song with him on lead vocals. Terry Kath revived his old live favorite "Mississippi Delta City Blues" for the album, while turning in a touching vocal on Danny Seraphine's "Little One." Seraphine also co-wrote "Take Me Back to Chicago", which charted at No. 63. Kath, who was planning a forthcoming solo album, may have intended "Takin' It On Uptown" — which, besides some uncredited backup singers, possibly features only Kath himself — as a solo album "preview" along the lines of Lamm's "Skinny Boy" on Chicago VII. James Pankow sang lead on his own "Till The End of Time," as did Lee Loughnane on his original, "This Time." The once-prolific Robert Lamm contributed only two songs, the sympathetic "Policeman" and "Vote For Me." The cover design for the album is called "Regional Map" on the group's official web site. Upon its September 1977 release, Chicago XI (Columbia 34860) reached No. 6 in the US on the Billboard 200, stayed in the charts for 20 weeks and went platinum in October the same year. It did not chart in the UK. In her review of the album for The Sydney Morning Herald, Christine Hogan said, "If there had never been a Chicago X, this album would have been the best ever made by these perennials." Writing for the Wilmington, Delaware Evening Journal, Hugh Cutler called the album a "critical and commercial triumph" and said it even drew a "rave review" from Rolling Stone magazine. Record World described the single "Little One"