Jim Guercio

Legendary writer, arranger, and record producer, Jim Guercio, is best known for helping to discover and launch such heralded artists as The Buckinghams, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Chicago.

His work with The Buckinghams in his native Chicago yielded seven charted Billboard hits in the mid-’60s, including “Kind Of A Drag,” “Don’t You Care,” “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song),” and “Susan.”

His collaboration a few years later with Blood, Sweat & Tears on their breakthrough album yielded the timeless hits “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” “Spinning Wheel,” and “And When I Die” – work which introduced complex horn arrangements and a sonically-honest, gritty production style to the world.

Guercio is best known for his landmark work with the band Chicago, writing, arranging, and producing a decade’s worth of music recorded through the 1970s, a prolific period during which the famed rock band released eleven albums and charted twenty-four Top 40 hits, including “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is,” “Colour My World,” “Saturday In The Park,” “25 Or 6 To 4,” “Make Me Smile,” “Just You ‘N’ Me,” “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long,” “If You Leave Me Now,” and “Baby What A Big Surprise.”

In addition to aggressively promoting the song catalogs of the various bands Guercio helped found, shape, and produce, Spirit is working with the still-active producer in telling the story of the Caribou Ranch recording studio, a sonically and environmentally unique facility he built on more than 4,000 acres of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains which attracted a who’s-who of rock, country, and jazz music royalty through the ’70s and ’80s, including Earth, Wind & Fire, Supertramp, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Return To Forever, and Elton John, whose ‘Caribou’ album was named for the studio and ranch.